Mission 49: Surprise
It flew past Tseng unsteadily; then the fragile air craft crashed against a wall and fell on the floor. "Reno," Tseng warned.
However, the stern look and serious voice that the leader used was lost to the redhead. Reno busied himself in making another paper airplane; it was his idea of putting those important documents to good use. He threw it but this time his aim was a little off.
Another improvised airplane made of paper flew over Rude and Elena, this time crashing against Tseng's head. "Reno!"
"I'm bored!" Reno complained.
They were all bored actually, but that didn't have to be a bad thing. Quite frankly, Tseng would rather be bored than have to put up with one of those annoying missions they had been receiving lately.
Elena got up from her desk, her steady footsteps sounding off louder than they should due to the excessive silence of the office. She nodded her head in a quiet goodbye, a bright smile upon her face, as she closed the Turk office's door on her way out.
"She's been going out like this every day lately, but I don't know what her mission is. Elena won't talk about it, she only smiles and blushes when I ask." Tseng didn't like that at all. "She keeps saying it's a top secret mission, some internal work for Shinra instead of a mission hired from the outside."
"Jealous?" Reno threw another paper airplane.
The airplane unsuspectingly flew in front of Tseng towards the opposing wall. But it never reached its destination because Tseng reached out and grabbed it, crushing the paper in his fist. "I am not jealous, I trust Elena... I just don't trust, who ever is with her. What if he tries to hurt her?"
"You're really overprotective of Elena. She's a Turk, she'll be fine. Besides, we don't know anything about the client." Reno grinned, it may have sounded as if he was consoling Tseng, but he was actually poking his curiosity.
"I want to know more about that client..." and Tseng fell for it, just as Reno had hoped.
"Want me to investigate?" That would certainly make things easier for Reno, instead of going through the trouble of sneaking out of the office.
"Yes, then maybe some of the paperwork will be saved," Tseng agreed.
Thus Reno left to investigate what Elena was doing and to make sure the deadly innocent maiden wasn't being deceived. Elena had become more skilled since her days as a rookie, surely anyone could see that, but Reno wouldn't complain about having a chance to get out of the office.
When Tseng asked Reno about what he saw, Reno reported that Elena had gone out with Tifa, Shera and Yuffie. It made sense; those four had been spending more time together lately. Elena must have been smiling because she was looking forward to a girl's afternoon out. But then that would mean she skipped work and she never skipped work, much less that often.
Tseng was not gullible; he knew that Reno was hiding important information. Then the theories started to pile up in Tseng's head, like the papers on his desk. Whoever was trying to steal Elena away must have bribed Reno and bought his silence, leaving the redhead to make up excuses for Elena. Tseng had tried asking her directly but she always avoided the subject.
Another day came and Tseng breathed deeply, looking at the pile of paper work waiting for him at his desk with disdain. Usually he would attack the work none stop until it was done, but today he just didn't feel like it. It was an odd coincidence that just when Elena started to mysteriously leave the office, his paper work started to pile up. It was almost as if Rufus himself was in on it... Wait, Rufus?! No, it couldn't be!
When Reno later brought his false report, Tseng decided to try to get more information out of him. "Rufus is involved isn't he?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," though Reno denied it, for just a split second he had a deer caught in the headlights look.
"He is involved!" Tseng concluded. Then the Turk leader looked at Rude, "take care of the paper work. This time I will investigate myself. Maybe Elena is feeling ignored because I'm such a workaholic and Rufus is taking advantage of that."
"This is starting to sound like a soap opera, I'm leaving now," and Reno made his escape.
"These papers need your signature," Rude pointed out.
"Forge it!" Tseng couldn't believe his own words, but with that said, he ran off. Yet coincidentally Rufus had a minor emergency soon after, which forced Tseng to go to his aid at the risk of losing his job if he refused. But also it helped Tseng confirm that, at least on that particular day, Elena was not with Rufus.
After carrying Rufus around piggyback for the day, because the young president insisted to have twisted his ankle, Tseng was too exhausted to do anything other than sleep, and the mystery of Elena remained a mystery for another day.
Finally the moment of truth came, Tseng would investigate what was going on if it was the last thing he did. Elena didn't even show up at work that day and neither did Reno. Strangely enough, Rude was no where to be found either.
Tseng headed to Healin Lodge to settle his suspicions about Rufus. That day when Rufus supposedly twisted his ankle, Reno could have alerted him of Tseng's suspicions. It was odd that Rufus' injury was inexplicably healed the next day. Sure Rufus overreacted sometimes, but even taking that into consideration it was still too odd to ignore given the circumstances.
However, when Tseng arrived at Healin Lodge he was met with a big surprise. "Happy Birthday!" Confetti rained down on him as much as confusion did.
Rufus had heard from Cloud when he went to the Seventh Heaven for Tifa's cooking, about how much fun it was to make little surprise parties. The topic of Zack was already present when Rufus arrived and he caught the conversation when Cloud was narrating a particular occasion in which he and a few others surprised Zack on his birthday.
Rufus was feeling bored. He had taken to trying a variety of different pastimes and often wanted to try something new when ever he saw it or heard about it, which included completely random ideas every now and then. Sure he had received plenty of surprise parties, and some of them he actually didn't expect, thus making them real surprise parties, instead of in name only like the majority. But he had never planned a surprise party with gifts, cake, decorations and the like. The way Cloud descried the process it made it sound like fun.
Thus in an unexpected turn of events, Rufus decided to inquire whose birthday was next, which his escort at the time, Rude, revealed to be Tseng's. That was how that crazy idea came to be. Rufus was picky and it had to be done right. Who better to help pick out the necessary materials than Tseng's girlfriend Elena? Of course it had to stay as a secret so Reno, Rude and the paper work were the distractions. Although, one had to wander if a surprise party was really worth nearly giving poor Tseng a nervous breakdown, not that he actually showed it.
End of Mission 49
Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Mission 49 is for evenstarfictionfan, who wanted to see more of Tseng being protective of Elena. If there is anything anyone would like to suggest for this story, everyone is welcome to do so.