Desha's Reno of the Turks Fan Fiction

Chapter 7: The Island Closest to Heaven and Hell

She stood stiffly in front of his desk. The door was closed, isolating her from the rest of the Turks’ office. That door was almost never closed. Being cut off like this was unnerving, particularly knowing that he was less than pleased with her.

“Elena… Would you mind explaining to me just why you are standing in my office, looking like that?” Tseng asked, keeping his voice even, his face neutral, despite the extraordinarily comical sight that was currently posed before him.

“They…” she began, only to find her throat had gone dry. She swallowed harshly and tried again, “They won’t come off, sir…” Her cheeks – what he could see of them at least – flushed crimson in embarrassment as she motioned to the multi-colored feathers that had been affixed to her face and hands. Tseng stood and slowly circled his rookie Turk, absently wondering just what sort of adhesive Reno’d used to get them to stay on so well…

“I see,” Tseng deadpanned, “This wouldn’t, by chance, have anything to do with Reno’s new-found aversion to toast, would it?”

He was still trying to figure that one out. Reno refused to discuss it, but at some point in the last few days, toast had joined the extremely short foods-Reno-won’t-touch list. Tseng was certain it had something to do with the recently renewed prank war between the two Turks.

“Yes, sir… I think it’s possible that the two incidents might be related, sir…” Elena responded, staring straight ahead at the wall behind Tseng’s desk.

“Indeed…”

Reno had gone all out this time. She’s awoken groggy and disoriented this morning… and when she looked in the mirror, it hadn’t been hard to figure out why. She’d been drugged… That was the only possible way he could have…

“This has gone, I think, a bit too far, Elena.”

She was certain she went a shade or two paler at those words, and her stomach dropped. Was she being suspended? Or worse, dismissed from the Turks altogether?

“S-sir?” she queried, uncertainly.

“The two of you are turning the name ‘Turk’ into the company joke,” the Wutaiian Turk said, gravely, having paused to stand just outside of her range of view.

“Y-yes, sir…” she replied, swallowing the lump in her throat. ‘Oh gods… He really is going to fire me…’ she thought in horror. All her hard work. All her accomplishments. All for nothing.

“I really expected better of you, Elena…” Tseng continued, continuing his slow circuit around the stock-still woman. Her eyes never left that spot on the wall… and so she didn’t see the smirk that flickered briefly across his face.

“I… I’m sorry, sir,” she said with an audible tremor in her voice. Elena clenched her fists, waiting for the other shoe to drop. She wondered if Reno would face the same fate. He was just as much to blame as she was… more so, in this particular instance. But then… Reno was an integral part of the team with years of seniority on her. She was just a rookie, barely starting out. And sometimes – like now – she worried that that made her easy to replace.

“As you should be. I’m afraid, Elena, that this merits severe punishment,” he said calmly, “For both you and Reno.”

He completed his agonizingly slow tour around the woman, returning to his desk, and took a seat.

“To begin with, you’re both suspended for one week… without pay.”

That alone might be sufficient to deter Elena, who was still very much finding her place among the Turks, but it would hardly discourage Reno from indulging in such behavior in the future. Though, he noted, somewhat amused – and perhaps a little pleased, as well – that Elena, instead of being completely cowed, looked rather relieved. Probably, she had expected much worse from her first official reprimand. Well, Tseng certainly didn’t want to disappoint her…

“Furthermore, during that week, you and Reno are going to be spending some… quality time… together,” he added, and it took supreme effort of control on his part not to laugh out loud at the expression of horror now clearly etched on Elena’s face.

“Q-quality time, sir?” she squeaked.

“I’ll fill you both in on the details once I’ve finalized the arrangements.”

That was clearly the final word on the matter, and Elena silently left Tseng’s office, closing the door behind her as quietly as she could, as if making too much noise might further anger the man. When she turned away, she found Rude was watching her intently from across the room.

“You think you had it rough, trust me… Reno had it worse,” he commented, “He’s supposed to set an example. Tseng had him in there for almost an hour.”

Elena shuddered. An hour of that? An hour of Tseng’s soft, even voice dripping with disappointment, never rising above his normal speaking volume but somehow making the object of his ire squirm uncomfortably until he saw fit to release them? She glanced at her watch, and found that she’d been subjected to a mere eight minutes. How could anyone, even Reno, tolerate an hour? Had he simply been on the receiving end so many times he was immune?

“You don’t get used to it,” Rude added, as if reading her mind.

“I think I need to sit down for awhile,” she said quietly, as she slid into her chair. She was a little surprised to find a mug sitting innocuously on her desk, steam rising from the dark liquid inside. She picked it up and inhaled, immediately recognizing the calming scent of camomile. She glanced back up at Rude, smiling gratefully, but he had gone back to his computer screen as if nothing were out of the ordinary.

---

“That’s right! See the amazing chocobo woman, only five gil!” a voice shouted as the elevator doors parted in the main lobby to let one of her fellow passengers – who had been doing their level best to completely ignore her for the entire ride – disembark. Elena stepped out as well, to see what was going on, eyes widening as she entered the expansive area. A crowd had gathered, and she was not even remotely surprised to see Reno in the middle of it all.

“Yes, just a mere five gil for a look at this hideous freak of nature! Ahh, there she is now! Careful… Don’t get too close! She’s a dangerous and easily provoked creature!” Reno continued, speaking like some deranged carnival side-show barker.

“Reno!” she screamed, absolutely furious, and lunged for the redhead, clawing her way through the raucously laughing crowd. But Reno’s lithe body easily slipped away from her amidst the guffawing spectators, and once he was clear of them, he broke into a run towards the second set of elevators on the opposite side of the concourse. Elena cleared a path for herself and sprinted toward him, looking for all the world like some kind of giant, enraged bird, but Reno was already in the elevator car. By the time she made it that far, the doors had slid closed, and he was safely out of her reach.

---

The message Tseng had left on her voice mail that morning had instructed her to pack light for a week-long trip… specifying that if it couldn’t fit in a standard issue travel pack, she was to leave it behind. He had given no further details other than a planned time and location for her departure. Elena groaned, thinking of the implications of his instructions, as she carefully packed several sets of clothing and various other necessities into her bag.

“Thanks a lot, Reno,” she growled to herself. This was all his fault. Her toast assault had been a work of pure genius – more so, given that even Tseng still hadn’t figured exactly what she’d done to Reno. It had gone off without a hitch, and almost no one was the wiser. But Reno… that little troll. He had to go for public humiliation. If he’d just done something more subtle to get back at her, they wouldn’t be in this mess. But no…

Her pack was filling up quickly, she realized, as she tried to shove her hair dryer into it.

She thought about it for a moment. Tseng had said she’d be spending quality time with Reno. Was a hair dryer really something that would help her survive that? In a pinch, she supposed she could bludgeon him with it… With a sigh, she tossed it onto her bed, and in its place, tucked her spare sidearm into the bag. After all, one never knew when a backup weapon might be needed. Her main weapon, of course, was holstered in it’s usual place, beneath her jacket.

Satisfied that she was packed sensibly for whatever Tseng was going to throw at her, Elena decided that a few small luxuries could still fit. She retrieved a package of cookies from the kitchen, and also stowed her MP3 player and some spare batteries in the pack. Now all that was left to do was await the pre-arranged departure time.

---

“Reno… I thought I told you to pack for a week-long trip… not a frat party…” Tseng noted. The contents of Reno’s pack looked like he’d just cleaned out a convenience store of its entire inventory.

“I did, Boss,” Reno said, grinning at him, as he tapped his electro-mag rod on his shoulder, “Got all the necessities… Chips, beer, candy bars, beer, smokes… beer…”

Tseng fought the urge to sigh in exasperation. Only Reno…

“Your funeral…” he said instead. A helicopter was standing by to airlift the misbehaving Turks to their punishment.

“So what’cha got in store for us, anyway?” Reno asked, “One of those sensitivity seminars or some new age crap like that?”

“Not exactly…” Tseng smirked. Reno was about to question him further, but Elena arrived at that moment, looking grimly at the two men.

“Ready to go, sir,” she said to Tseng, sounding as if she were preparing to leave for her own execution.

“Good… Let’s be off then, shall we?” Tseng said, just a little too cheerfully.

They boarded the helicopter, and soon they were heading east, hugging the coastline for a long while before swinging north out over the open ocean. Elena gazed down at the water as it reflected the warm mid-morning sunshine. It really was a beautiful sight, and for awhile, it took her mind off whatever it was Tseng had in mind for her and Reno. The aforementioned Turk, on the other hand was dozing, his forehead leaning against the plexiglass window, arms folded across his chest… though ever now and then, he was startled awake by the constant noise and vibration of the helicopter.

Elena sighed. Reno was not what she would call a morning person. Napping on the way to… wherever the hell they were going… might have made him a bit more tolerable. Now she’d probably be stuck dealing with his cranky, annoyed, pain-in-the-ass self until at least lunchtime when the prospect of food would almost certainly bring him back to the more easy-going attitude he usually sported.

‘Dear Holy… A whole week, stuck with Reno…’ she thought miserably to herself.

---

The helicopter set down with a thump that jarred Elena from the light doze she’d somehow managed to fall into. It had been a long trip. She blinked and rubbed her eyes, gazing out the window with a yawn. They had set down on a wide expanse of beach.

“Hey… this ‘punishment’ might not be so bad after all,” Reno commented upon seeing his surroundings.

“Alright, you two… out,” Tseng ordered, and Elena, grabbing hold of her pack, moved quickly to disembark. Reno, on the other hand, took his sweet time stretching his limbs and hopping out onto the beach. Tseng stood calmly as Reno sauntered over to join him and Elena. Behind him was a small mound, covered by bright blue tarp that had been anchored into the sand. Tseng reached out and pulled the tarp away, and Elena looked on in dismay at what it revealed.

Two sleeping bags, tightly rolled and secured with straps… some rope… a pair of canteens… two small bags that could be slung over a shoulder… and one last item…

“Uh… s-sir?” said Elena, hesitantly.

“Yes, Elena?”

“T-there’s only one tent… sir…”

“I’m aware of that,” Tseng replied.

“Ah, come on, Tseng… You can’t be serious,” Reno moaned.

“When I said ‘quality time’, I meant it,” Tseng said, “Now then… The pair of you have one week to get from this beach to the opposite side of the island, where you will rendezvous with your ride home. There’s a map in one of those bags marking the trail you’re to take. You are to follow the trail exactly. There will be global positioning markers for you to activate along the way. If you try to cheat and skip a marker or markers…” At this point Tseng looked directly at Reno before continuing, “… you will not like the consequences, I assure you.”

“Is it too late to promise to be good?” Reno sighed.

“Far too late, Reno…” Tseng replied, looking uncharacteristically smug, “Have fun… With any luck, I’ll see you both in a week.”

With that, he slipped back into the helicopter and ordered it into the air, stranding the other two Turks on the beach.

“Well, this is just great,” Elena said as she watched the helicopter vanish into the horizon, “Thanks a lot Reno… This is all your fault, you know!”

“My fault?!” Reno yelled, “How is any of this my fault?!”

“If you would just act your age once in a while…” she began.

“If you’d just pull that stick out of your ass…” Reno cut her off.

“How dare you?!” Elena shouted before he could finish that sentence.

“What? Can’t take a little constructive criticism?” he countered.

“Oh like anything you ever have to say to me is ‘constructive’,” she growled back, temper flaring. Reno outright picked on her, was what he did. There was nothing constructive about it, most of the time, and she was sick of it.

“Now, now, Elena…” Reno said, wagging a finger at her, “Remember who the superior officer is here…”

“Higher ranking doesn’t necessarily imply superiority,” she retorted, turning her back on him and crossing her arms huffily.

“Ouch… That stung…” Reno said in a mock-hurt voice, clasping a hand to his chest. He set down his backpack and wandered over to the supplies Tseng had left for them. Picking up one of the sleeping bags, he threw it hard at Elena, shouting, “Catch!”

She turned, and it smacked her in the face, catching her by complete surprise, and knocking her over.

“RENO!”

She snatched up the sleeping bag, stomped over to the laughing Turk, and swung it hard at his head. Reno saw it coming, though, and ducked, laughing even harder as Elena’s momentum spun her in a circle.

“Arrrgh!” she screamed in frustration.

“Aw, chill out, ‘Lena…” Reno drawled, “All we gotta do to make Tsengy-kins happy is follow the map, and avoid killing one another for a week. Tell ya what… I’ll call a truce if you will. Deal?”

He held his hand out. After a moment’s hesitation, Elena shook it. “Deal,” she replied, grudgingly. They certainly wouldn’t get far if they were constantly at each other’s throats.

“Great… so now that that’s settled, where the hell’s that map? Might as well get moving…”

They rummaged through the two bags, finding food, a first aid kit, matches, a flashlight, a compass, and, nestled at the bottom, the map. Elena unfolded it.

“Ok…” she said, pointing at the southernmost part of the map, “Right now, we’re right about here, I think. And we need to go here…” Her finger trailed up to a second beach almost directly opposite their current location.

“Ugh… Tseng didn’t wanna make this easy on us, did he?” said Reno, “Look at the trail he’s got marked out!”

Said trail wound all around the island, never crossing itself, but backtracking several times, leading over streams and cliffs, through the densely forested interior of the island, across valleys… all in all, it looked as through Tseng had created the most hellacious trek for them that he could come up with. Every seven inches or so, the map showed a bright blue dot on the trail… Elena assumed they were the GPS markers that she and Reno were supposed to activate. There were twelve in total.

---

“Ow! Reno… Slow down a minute!” Elena called, “Ow! Stupid rocks…”

She balanced on one foot and yanked her shoe off, shaking out the pebble that had been driving her nuts for the last five minutes. Reno had disappeared among the trees by the time she got it back on her foot.

“Reno!” she yelled again.

“Hurry the hell up, ‘Lena,” Reno yelled back.

“Asshole,” she muttered as she set off again in the direction of his voice. When she eventually caught up to him, he was leaning against a tree, looking annoyed.

“Keep up, will ya? Ya keep falling behind like that and it’ll take us a month to get out of here instead of a week.”

“I was keeping up just fine until I got a rock in my shoe! Would it have killed you to wait two seconds while I got rid of it?!”

Reno rolled his eyes, and set off again, ignoring her. Well if he was going to ignore her, then she was just gonna do the same right back. Elena glared at Reno’s back as she fell into step behind him. They continued on in silence for a little while, and eventually, Elena’s anger at her fellow Turk began to gradually abate.

‘So much for a truce,’ she thought to herself. They hadn’t gone more than an hour without getting into an argument over one stupid thing or another. By now, the sun was starting to set, and they hadn’t covered anywhere near the amount of ground they had planned on for the first day of their ‘punishment’. She sighed… it was going to be a very long week…

“Hey… Reno?”

“What?” he snapped at her. Apparently he hadn’t cooled off as much as she had.

“Geez… I was just gonna say that maybe we’d better find a spot to camp for the night. It… It’s gonna be getting dark pretty soon,” she replied, hoping that if she appealed to his sense of reason, they could avoid another fight. Reno paused a moment, considering.

“Yeah… I s’pose you’re right,” he conceded. He stopped and pulled out the map, “Looks like there’s a decent spot not too far ahead of us.”

Elena nodded, and they moved on. As it turned out, Reno was right… less than ten minutes later, they found themselves in a clearing. Elena dropped her pack at the base of a tree. Reno did the same, stretching as the burden was removed from his shoulders at last.

“Oh man, my back is killin’ me,” he muttered, rolling his shoulders until they gave a satisfying crack, “You get to carry the tent tomorrow. So, uh… You know how to put it up, right?”

Elena smirked at him.

“Why? Don’t you?” she goaded.

“Hell no…” Reno replied, digging through his bag, and coming up with a pack of cigarettes. He pulled one out and stuck it between his lips, fishing around in his pocket for his lighter, “I’m a city boy, born and bred…”

He lit the cigarette, and took a long drag from it, and leaned back against a tree, closing his eyes.

“You mean to tell me you’ve never been camping before?” Elena asked. Not that she was exactly the outdoorsy type herself… but she’d been on her share of camp-outs. Her father had taken her and her brothers camping and fishing every summer when she was a little girl.

“Me? Come on, ‘Lena…” Reno replied, snickering, “Do I seriously look like the kind of guy who’s into camping on the weekends.”

“Not even when you were little?”

Reno raised an eyebrow at her.

” ‘Lena, unlike some people on this island, I grew up in the slums…” he replied, pulling in another lungful of smoke, “I had more important things to do when I was a kid. Like not starvin’.”

“… Oh,” Elena said. She hadn’t really thought about that, and she certainly hadn’t meant to bring up any bad memories, either… especially since the two of them finally seemed to be on civil terms again, “Err… sorry.”

“Tch… Ancient history. Don’t worry ’bout it,” said Reno, waving a hand dismissively, “So… about that tent…”

“O-oh right!” Elena cried, snapping out of her reverie, “I’ll set it up.”

It had been a long time since she’d had to pitch a tent, but she managed it without too much trouble. She caught Reno watching her a couple of times, out of the corner of her eye, though he did his best to look completely uninterested as soon as he was noticed. By then, the sun had nearly set. There wasn’t much light left at all.

“You hungry?” Reno asked. He was going through one of the bags Tseng had packed for them.

“Definitely,” Elena replied. Hungry was an understatement. She was half starved.

“Looks like we got a bunch of sandwiches to start us off,” Reno said, “Might as well eat ’em now. They won’t last long out here.”

He tossed one to Elena, and she quickly unwrapped it and devoured half of it immediately. Reno settled himself down beside her, pulling the cellophane off of his as well.

“Easy,” he smirked, “You’ll make yourself sick.”

“Mmmph mmm mph uph,” Elena retorted, her mouth full.

“Sorry… could you repeat that? I seem to have forgotten my pig to English dictionary…” he laughed. Elena glared at him, and took a swig from her canteen.

“I said, ‘Shut the hell up’. Besides… you eat like a pig all the time and it never makes you sick…”

“Yeah, but I’m conditioned to it,” Reno said, cramming half a sandwich into his mouth and hardly chewing before swallowing it down, “You, on the other hand, normally eat like a little girl minding her manners at a grownup dinner party.” Elena rolled her eyes and reached for a second sandwich…

---

“Oooh…”

“Told ya so,” Reno’s voice said from the darkness.

“Shut up, Reno…” Elena responded, weakly. Her stomach ached. And the worse part about it was that Reno had warned her, and now that smug son of a bitch was gonna rub it in. She really hoped that she’d just fall asleep… preferably sooner, rather than later.

“And you’d better not puke on me,” he added.

“Seriously, shut up,” she moaned, wrapping her arms tight around her abdomen.

“I mean, really…” Reno continued, “As far as we hiked today? You’d think that your training would have taught you that high impact cardio and binge eating don’t mix…”

“Reno, I mean it…” Elena said as she sat up in the darkness of the tent, intent at yelling at him… but as she did so, a wave of nausea hit her hard, “Please just shut… Ohhh…”

She clapped a hand over her mouth, and lunged for the tent’s doorway, practically throwing herself through it.

” ‘Lena?” Reno called. The only answer he received was the sound of violent retching from somewhere outside.

“Tch… told ya so,” he said again, and then lay back down, drifting off to sleep before Elena ever returned to her sleeping bag.

---

The next morning, Elena awoke feeling moderately better… though her stomach still felt sour, and she didn’t even want to think about what her breath must smell like.

“Mornin’,” Reno’s voice drawled. He was perched on a fallen log, a candy bar in one hand, and a cigarette in the other.

“Nice breakfast,” Elena muttered. Reno shrugged.

“Ready to head out?” he asked around a mouthful of caramel and nougat, “Or you want something to eat first.”

“Ugh… Don’t even mention food…”

“You really oughta eat something, ya know,” Reno prodded.

“Reno, are you trying to make me sick again?” she snapped at him.

“Hey, don’t blame me for that. I tried to prevent you from gettin’ sick. You brought that on yourself. But no, as a matter of fact… right now I’m tryin’ to make sure you’re not gonna pass out from hunger later this afternoon,” he replied lazily, “Bad enough I gotta lug all this shit along… I am not carrying you, too.”

“Fine!” she growled, hating to admit – and supremely annoyed with herself that she had to – that he was absolutely right. She dug a granola bar out of one of the bags, took a tentative bite of it, and swallowed. At least it stayed down. Elena forced herself to finish it off… slowly… as Reno was rolling up the sleeping bags and the tent, getting ready to set off again.

But as irritated as she was at him and his know-it-all commentary, it wasn’t lost on her that, despite his declaration the previous evening, Reno strapped the tent to his own pack, not hers… and did so without comment or complaint.

---

Hours later, they found themselves lost.

“I’m telling you it’s this way,” Elena insisted.

“I know how to read a fucking map, ‘Lena,” Reno replied. They’d made good time for awhile. The trail was straightforward and easy going. They’d found and activated two of their markers, and both of them had previously been in an exceptionally good mood… until they’d somehow wandered off the trail.

“I know how to read a fucking map, ‘Lena,” the rookie Turk mimicked, “Well, ya could’ve fooled me!”

“Fine! You wanna go that way, go that way!” Reno yelled, “I’m going this way!”

With that, he stormed off into the woods.

“R-Reno?!” Elena called after him, not expecting to be abandoned. He wouldn’t really just leave her, would he? And without a map?

“Reno?!”

When she got no answer, she started to worry. He really was going to leave her, the bastard!

“Reno! Wait for me!” she shouted, running after him. The trees and brush were dense here, and she couldn’t see him anywhere. It was as if he’d just melted into the forest and vanished. He had to be able to hear her… he wasn’t that far ahead. He was just being a jerk, and not answering her… letting her squirm.

Suddenly, there was a rustle in the bushes behind her. She turned, but as soon as she did so, the noise stopped, and everything went still.

“Reno?”

No answer.

“Real mature, Reno…” she muttered, and headed off in the direction of the rustling. Then she heard more rustling… back in the direction she’d just come from.

“Ha, ha, Reno… knock it off,” she called out to him. The other Turk still didn’t answer. Elena sighed and walked back to where she’d just been. Just as she reached the spot, more rustling, again from behind her. She spun around.

“Reno, come on… This isn’t funny anymore!”

In fact, it was starting to freak her out a little bit. This was how every bad horror movie she’d ever seen started out.

“Kill, kill, kill… Die, die, die…” a voice whispered right next to her ear. Elena screamed, and spun around, hand instinctively reaching for her gun, as she was half expecting to come face to face with a lunatic in a hockey mask. But the only thing she saw was one very amused redhead. Reno snickered and then broke out laughing hysterically.

“That… That was fucking priceless!” Reno managed to spit out.

“Reno, you asshole!” she shouted, punching him in the chest, “You scared me half to death!”

“Ow! Come on… it was a joke,” Reno said.

“Do something like that again, and next time I’ll shoot you!” Elena yelled. Reno smirked.

“Go for it… I’d love to see you explain that to Tseng…”

---

As the sun was setting on their second day of punishment, Reno and Elena set up camp for the night. They’d managed to find one more of their markers before it had started getting too dark to go any farther. It had taken them almost two hours just to find their way back to the trail earlier, a detour that they’d have to make up for the next day. Elena sighed and poked the fire with a stick. Only two days, and already all she wanted to do was go home and fall asleep in her nice, soft bed.

To make matters worse, for the latter half of the afternoon, the sky had taken on an ominous gray hue, as wave after wave of dark clouds began to block out the sun. She really hoped it wasn’t going to rain… but she was fairly certain that she could already hear thunder rumbling in the distance, and the wind was picking up noticeably.

“Yo, ‘Lena…” Reno called, “Better get everything into the tent… Doesn’t look like the weather’s gonna be too pleasant tonight.”

She nodded, and grabbed her pack, hastily tossing it inside, along with her other bag and her canteen. Reno carried his gear over as well, just as the first few drops of rain began to spatter the ground.

“Uh oh…” he muttered.

Elena crawled inside, before the downpour could start, and Reno wasn’t far behind, zipping the tent door shut behind him. The next thing she knew, their little shelter was being pounded by rain, and lightning was illuminating the clearing all around them. Reno pulled his boots off and tossed them into a corner.

“Guess we’re stuck in here ’til this stops,” he said, stretching out in his sleeping bag, clasping his hands behind his head.

“Looks that way,” Elena agreed, making herself comfortable as well. A deafening crash of thunder split the air, making both Turks jump.

“Fucking A, that sounded close…” Reno muttered.

“Y-yeah, it did,” Elena replied, nervously. She’d never been a big fan of storms… and being stuck out here with only a flimsy tent for cover was not exactly her idea of a good time. Reno didn’t look too thrilled about it, either. More thunder sounded, and Elena hesitantly laid back down, pulling her sleeping bag close. After the third clap of thunder, Reno sat up and started rummaging through his pack.

“Reno? What are you looking for?” Elena asked, curious.

“Nothin’,” Reno said firmly.

“Well you must be looking for something,” Elena pointed out. Reno didn’t answer… but apparently he had found whatever the object of his search was. Whatever it was, he didn’t let her get a good look at it, and before she could maneuver into a better position, he’d tucked it into the folds his own sleeping bag.

“Reno?”

“Just try and go to sleep, ‘Lena,” he said. He was curled up on his side, his back to her. Lightning lit up the tent, and thunder crashed.

“Sleep… yeah, right,” Elena snorted, “Come on… what’ve you got?”

“Nothing!” Reno insisted.

“Fine… You don’t wanna tell me? I’ll just have to find out for myself!” she said, grinning maniacally, ready to extract a little payback for earlier in the day. Elena pounced on the male Turk, pinning him so that his own sleeping bag was working against him, holding his arms tight against his sides. Reno growled and tried to squirm away, but he’d been caught off-guard, and Elena now had the upper hand.

“What is it, Reno?” Elena demanded.

“Ahhh… get off me!” Reno grunted as Elena’s knee can dangerously close to planting itself in a very sensitive region of his anatomy. By then, she was wrestling the sleeping bag open, trying to get at whatever it was he was hiding. Her fingers closed around something soft, and she snatched it, stealing it away from the pinned Turk and rolling back to her own side of the tent.

“Give him back!” Reno yelled.

Elena clicked on her flashlight to get a better look at her prize… and burst out laughing.

“M-Mr. F-Foo-foo?!” she cackled, staring at the little stuffed bunny.

“I said give him back!”

“I cannot believe you brought a stuffed animal camping!” Elena said, wiping away tears of laughter. Reno glared at her in the dim light. The storm was still raging outside.

“Alright… you’ve had your laugh. Now give him back, ‘Lena,” Reno sighed.

“Say please…” Elena smirked.

“… Please,” Reno complied, barely audible above the thunder.

“Say ‘Pretty please’…” Elena taunted him.

“Dammit, ‘Lena!”

“Say it!”

“… Pretty please.”

“Now say ‘Elena, I’m sorry I’m such an asshole and I promise I’ll be nice to you from now on and stop calling you ‘Lena’…”

“In your dreams…” Reno snorted.

“Fine… then I’m keeping him,” Elena said with a shrug.

” ‘Lena… Elena…” Reno said, his tone suddenly serious, “Come on… seriously, give him back. Please? I’m asking ya nice, ok?”

Elena sighed and handed the bunny back. The look of sheer relief on Reno’s face was so pronounced, she broke out laughing all over again.

“It’s not funny!” Reno muttered, clutching the bunny against his chest.

“God, Reno, I know you’re sentimental about it and all, but it’s just a toy…”

“It’s not just a toy,” Reno growled, and buried himself and Mr. Foo-foo in the sleeping bag, turning his back on Elena once again.

“Reno?”

“Just fucking drop it!” Reno yelled, his voice muffled by the fabric of the sleeping bag. The anger in his voice caught Elena by surprise. For a moment, she just stared her fellow-Turk.

“Reno…” she tried again, lightly prodding him.

“Leave me the hell alone,” he replied. He was definitely angry… and in retrospect, making fun of the bunny might not have been the kindest thing to do. She didn’t know the whole story behind it, but she knew enough of it to understand that the toy meant a lot to Reno, and she knew how that was. She’d had her share of treasured childhood possessions. They still had a full five days to go… and it was going to be a horrible five days if Reno spent the entire time deliberately trying to make her life hell. Finally, Elena decided to swallow her pride and apologize before things came back to bite her in the ass. She sighed and moved a little closer to him, pulling the edge of the sleeping bag back, away from his face. Reno glared up at her, the occasional flashes of lightning making him look even more ticked off.

“I’m sorry,” she said, “That was uncalled for.”

Reno blinked and peered up at her, clearly not expecting an apology.

“So… Forgive me?” she asked. He sighed and and turned his face to look her in the eye.

“Yeah, I s’pose,” he said.

“So… look. I get that you’re attached to it, but don’t you think you might be just a little too attached?” asked Elena.

“No,” Reno replied.

“Seriously… what’s the whole story here?” Elena asked, genuinely curious now.

“It’s personal, and I don’t want to discuss it with someone I can’t trust,” Reno said in response, as he pulled the sleeping bag back up around him, “Now get some sleep. We still got five more days of this shit, ya know.”

“Y-you don’t trust me?” she asked, somewhat meekly. Well, that hurt. And it wasn’t just “don’t trust”… he’d said “can’t trust”. The words left her feeling hollow.

“Tch… go to sleep, ‘Lena,” was all the answer she received. She was still for a few moments, before laying back down and letting her eyes close. It was quite some time, however, before sleep finally claimed her.

---

The next morning dawned, a gloomy haze in the air. The sky was still overcast, as if more rain threatened at any moment. Elena had woken first and was fixing breakfast over the campfire. It had taken quite a bit of effort to get it going again after last night’s downpour, but finally she had coaxed a meager little flame out of some of the wood that wasn’t completely saturated. She was using it to boil water to make oatmeal. Reno emerged from the tent around the time that it was ready, yawning. He had a can of beer in his hand. Elena stared at him.

“Isn’t is a little early for that?” Elena asked.

“No such thing as too early… or too late, for that matter,” he smirked, taking a long swig from the can, “Want one?”

“Uh… no,” she said, and Reno shrugged, “Just out of curiosity, did you bring anything useful with you?”

“Of course…” Reno said.

“Yeah? Like what?”

Reno raised the can and shook it lightly in front of her face.

“I’d hardly call that ‘useful’,” Elena groaned.

“Not my fault you don’t share my priorities…” he said, grinning at her.

‘Well,’ thought Elena, ‘At least he’s in a better mood this morning.’

A part of her wanted to continue the conversation that Reno had so abruptly terminated the night before… but somehow, she didn’t think the man’s good mood would last very long if she brought up a certain stuffed bunny and his lack of trust in her again. Reno snagged a bowl from Elena and scooped half of the gooey oatmeal from the pot, downing it.

“Geez, Reno… do you even taste your food?” she asked, opting for a more neutral topic of conversation and blowing softly on a spoonful of her own breakfast.

“I’m more concerned with quantity than quality,” said Reno, “‘Sides… I’m starved.”

“How can you be?!” she asked in disbelief, “You ate your dinner last night, went back for seconds, and then ate at least a third of mine!”

“High metabolism. I gotta eat or I crash,” he said with a shrug, and then glanced at her half-empty bowl, “You gonna finish that?”

“Yes, I’m gonna finish it…” she said, gripping her bowl protectively. Reno snickered.

“I was kidding, ‘Lena…”

---

“Hey Reno! I think I see it!” Elena called. She had taken the lead today, Reno bringing up the rear. Their next marker was in sight. That would make four in total… a third of the way done. Reno hurried to join her.

” ‘Bout time… I was starting to wonder if we’d gone off the trail again,” he commented.

“Well, thanks for the vote of confidence,” Elena replied, “Tell me again… who got us lost yesterday, hmm?”

“Do you have to take everything I say as an insult?” Reno asked, somewhat bemused.

“It’s hard not to, when nearly everything you say to me is an insult,” she countered.

“It’s not… you’re just too insecure to see the difference between an insult and constructive criticism.”

“Oh, so now I’m insecure?!”

“There! You see what I mean? All I did was point out that you take things too personally sometimes, and you snap on me.”

“You did not! You called me insecure!”

“Only because you are…”

Elena glared at him, and stomped off down the trail to the GPS marker, leaving him behind. She flipped up the panel on the top and pressed the button to activate it, slamming it down again as the LED indicator light began flashing.

“And you’ve got a short temper, too…” Reno continued, goading her with a grin as he caught up to her. Elena stormed off down the trail a second time.

“Not to mention a tendency to avoid confrontation with authority!” Reno called after her. Elena froze in her tracks.

“Uh oh…” Reno muttered to himself, “That one mighta been over the line…”

The rookie Turk turned on her heel, and strode back over to him.

“I’ll show you a ‘tendency to avoid confrontation with authority’,” she hissed, and slapped him hard across the face.

“Ow!” Reno yelled, rubbing his cheek, “Damn, ‘Lena…”

---

Two more markers were activated by the time they’d reached their next campsite. They still had a few hours of light left, but the trail ahead was going to be rougher than it had been up until now, and both Turks were tired. Not to mention the fact that the rain that had been threatening all day was beginning to fall in a cold drizzle. By the time Elena had the tent unrolled and was assembling the poles, her clothes were already well past damp.

“You could help, you know!” she yelled at Reno, who was watching her from under the cover of a tree, “… And didn’t anyone ever tell you not to stand under a tree during a storm?”

“We’re in a forest, ‘Lena… anywhere I stand I’m gonna be under a tree,” Reno replied, but he did come over to help her. The tent went up quickly, but not before both Turks had been hit by a deluge of rain as the skies opened up and poured it down on them. They scrambled inside, dripping.

“Man that’s cold…” said Reno, shivering. Elena dug through her pack, and pulled out some dry clothes. Reno was already stripping out of the saturated fabric, revealing the tone, lean body beneath. Elena didn’t even realize she’d been staring until he spoke.

“Like what ya see?” he asked, waggling an eyebrow suggestively.

“Dream on,” she replied, rolling her eyes before looking away. Of course, for all his obnoxious personality quirks, Reno was far from unattractive, by anyone’s standards… even hers. And she couldn’t deny having furtively admired his physique on occasion. Not that she’d ever want to take things any farther than that… Elena shuddered at the thought, thinking back to the first time she seen him undressed. She still felt slightly traumatized over the whole Sordid Rose incident.

Reno slid naked into his sleeping bag, as Elena changed into something warm and dry… though not before checking to make sure that Reno was facing the opposite direction. Which, upon further reflection, she supposed was a little hypocritical of her, all things considered. She also belatedly realized that, despite her past accusations – and the general consensus of every woman in the Shinra Building – of Reno being a total pervert, he hadn’t been the one staring. She hadn’t even had to ask him to turn away while she changed.

---

“Hey ‘Lena,” Reno said, lighting up a cigarette. He was down to his last three, a prospect that didn’t bode well for him, “Why the hell are we doin’ this?”

“Doing what?” Elena asked. They’d been hiking for almost three hours, most of it uphill as they neared the center of the island. The terrain rose sharply in the interior, and judging by the map, they’d have a short bit of climbing to do in the near future.

“For the last three and a half days we’ve been wandering around on Tseng’s little camping trip from hell… Why?” he asked, taking a drag off the cigarette and flicking the ash onto the ground.

“… Because we’re being punished?” Elena replied, wondering just where the hell he was going with this.

“Yeah… so?” Reno said, “What’s the worst Tseng’ll do to us if we don’t do everything exactly as he says?”

“He could fire us…”

Reno chuckled softly. “Aw, he wouldn’t dare… Not over somethin’ like this. If he did, he’d have to replace us, and training a new Turk is a huge pain in the ass,” said Reno.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Elena said, rounding on him.

“Chill, ‘Lena… I didn’t mean you. You’re long past the pain in the ass stage,” Reno said, laughing openly now.

“… I am?” she asked. That was news to her… Reno always seemed to think she was a pain in the ass, at least as far as she could tell.

” ‘Course you are. You’re a rookie, not some untrained recruit,” Reno replied, “You’ve already got the training… you just need the experience to become a good Turk, and that’ll come in time. But recruits… Tch, talk about annoying. Think they already fucking know everything… Why do ya think so many of ’em wash outta the recruitment program before they even get considered for probie status, much less actually gettin’ promoted?”

It took Reno a moment to realize that Elena was no longer walking beside him. He stopped, and turned back. She was standing a good six paces behind him, looking at him quizzically.

“What?” he asked.

“You… really think that?”

“Think what?” he prodded, completely oblivious.

“That I’ll be a good Turk someday,” she clarified.

“Come on, ‘Lena… be serious,” he snorted, turning to head back up the trail.

“I am being serious!” she called after him. Reno stopped and turned around again.

“Fuck, Elena… You really think you’d have been promoted to the Turks if I didn’t think you had it in you? Tseng doesn’t make that decision by himself, ya know,” Reno replied, trying to gauge her response.

“I… I… You mean, you… Huh?” she stammered.

” ‘Lena?”

“I thought that you hated me!” she blurted out, finally.

“Hated you? Why would I hate you?” Reno asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, not hate, exactly… but you’re always telling me I’m weak and that I talk too much, and… It’s just… You’re always… I mean, you… you always seem so underwhelmed with everything I do…”

“Oh, please… just ’cause I’m hard on ya doesn’t mean I don’t like you… or that I don’t think you’re good at what ya do…” Reno said, snickering.

“So what does it mean, then?” she asked, almost timidly. Reno sighed.

” ‘Lena, sit,” he ordered, motioning to a large rock beside the trail. Too stunned to do anything else, she obeyed.

“Look, ‘Lena… I know it’ll probably send you into shock, but I’m gonna be serious here for a minute or two,” he said with a grin, “You’re new to the job. You’ve got the training, but like I said, you don’t have the experience. So for the time being, it’s part of my job to make sure you don’t get yourself killed out there. Literally. That’s actually in my job description. I know I’m tough on ya… even mean sometimes… but I do it to drive my point home. You make a lot of mistakes – and you know damn well that you do, so don’t even try to deny it. Sometimes it’s because you don’t know any better, and sometimes it’s because you just don’t think things through all the way. We’ve all been there… We all started out just like you.” He paused for a moment, apparently thinking about something, before shaking his head and laughing, “… Know what? Scratch that last comment. Do me a favor and don’t ever ask Tseng what trainin’ me was like. Believe it or not, you impress the hell out of me, Elena. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.”

Elena was staring at him as though he’d suddenly sprouted a second head.

“Ok… serious moment over,” Reno declared, “Time to get moving…”

“Reno… just tell me one more thing,” Elena said, climbing to her feet.

“Hmm?”

“If I impress you so much, how come you keep throwing all these stupid, humiliating pranks at me?”

“… ‘Cause it’s fun,” he said, with a sadistically wide smile. Elena’s look of shocked disbelief slowly morphed into righteous fury. Reno laughed and took off running down the path, Elena hot on his heels.

---

At the base of the cliff they finally stopped, both out of breath, and collapsed against the cool rocks.

“So…” Reno panted, “Back to my initial question…”

“What initial question?” Elena asked, breathing hard.

“What do ya think’s the worst Tseng’ll do to us if we don’t finish this according to his rules?”

“How should I know?” she replied, “I suppose he could leave us here until we do finish…”

“Nah… He needs us back in Midgar eventually, and he knows I’d be perfectly happy to lay around the beach doing nothing for weeks on end.”

“Public humiliation?” she ventured.

“Not Tseng’s style… Remember? That’s what landed us here to begin with…”

“… Torture?”

“There’s a thought. Ya know? Sometimes I wouldn’t necessarily put it past him. But then we still come back to him needing us to be physically and psychologically able to do our jobs.”

“So what do you think?”

“No idea… but he’s got something planned, just in case. You heard him. He told us point blank that we wouldn’t like the consequences if we slacked off, and Tseng doesn’t make empty threats,” Reno said, going over the possibilities in his head.

“Are you saying we should stop killing ourselves with this punishment, and take our chances with the alternative?” Elena asked.

“Maaaaaaybe,” Reno chuckled, “But if I knew what the alternative was, it’d be a hell of a lot easier to decide.”

“We’re halfway there… Maybe we should just finish and be done with it?”

“And deny Tseng the sadistic pleasure of disciplining us further? He’ll be so disappointed…” Reno said, in a mockingly scolding tone.

“There’s an upside to that, though,” said Elena.

“Yeah?”

“We get to see the look on his face when he learns that not only did we complete our ‘mission’ flawlessly, but we also didn’t brutally murder one another in the process…”

“Heh… Fair point,” Reno laughed, “Tell ya what… You choose. Either we go ahead as ordered, or we blow this whole thing off, make a run for the beach, and work on our tans for the next three days. I’ll go along with whatever you decide, no complaints.”

“Tempting as that beach sounds… I say we finish what we started,” said Elena.

“Tch… typical goody-goody mentality,” Reno groused, “But whatever… like I said, no complaints. Let’s go, rookie.”

He stood up, and helped Elena to her feet.

---

Elena found that things improved markedly from that point on. By the end of the sixth day, they’d found and activated all of the markers… due largely to the fact that Reno had decided to legitimately uphold the truce they’d made at the beginning of the trip. The beach where the helicopter would be arriving to take them home was still a few hours hike. With any luck, they could make it by nightfall, and spend their last day on the island enjoying the sand and surf.

As early evening set in, they were making their way down a steep incline, descending from the cliffs in the island’s interior back down into the forested areas that surrounded them. Reno was leading, and Elena was following carefully behind him.

“How far do you think?” asked Elena.

“At a guess? Three… Four miles, maybe?” Reno answered, “If we hurry, I think we’ll make it while there’s still enough light to see by.”

“I’m not sure hurrying is a good idea,” Elena said, as the loose grit and gravel beneath her feet shifted, and she slid a bit before catching herself.

“Easy, ‘Lena…” Reno cautioned, “You fall, and we’re both goin’ down.”

That was not exactly a welcoming prospect. The northern side of the cliffs, while not too ominous-looking from a distance, was steep and covered in a layer of loose sediment and rock. A misstep wouldn’t kill you… just send you sliding out of control down the incline. But you definitely wouldn’t stop sliding until you hit the bottom.

Which naturally meant that, less than thirty seconds after the words had left Reno’s lips, Murphy’s Law went into effect full force, and Elena’s foot came down on a patch of gravel that wouldn’t support her weight. She lost her footing entirely, and the next thing she knew, she was heading straight for Reno. Her cry of alarm didn’t go unnoticed… Reno turned around just in time for Elena to careen directly into his chest. He went over sideways as he made a last ditch effort to stop their momentum, landing hard on his arm. He hissed in pain as a particularly sharp-edged rock sliced deep into his bicep. His other arm was busy hugging Elena to his chest, but he hadn’t had a good grip on her to begin with, and when she was twisted away by the fall, he couldn’t hold on. So, he did the only thing he could do… wrapped his arms around his head, and let gravity carry him down.

After what seemed like an absurdly long time spent sliding and tumbling, he finally rolled to a halt in a patch of mockingly soft grass, the wind knocked out of him and his head spinning.

“Reno!” Elena’s voice called to him. He tried to answer her, but only managed a gasping cough as he tried to reclaim his breath.

“Reno?! Where are you?” She sounded worried, he thought.

“Over here!” he finally managed, with a groan. Footsteps ran toward him. With some effort, he sat up, wriggled his pack off, and started taking stock of his injuries.

“Reno, are you alright?” Elena asked, in a panic-tinged voice.

“More or less… You?”

“I… I think so,” she replied, “I sort of fell on top of you, and then I just slid the rest of the way.”

“Yeah, I noticed the falling on top of me part, believe me…” Reno muttered.

“I-I’m sorry, Reno… It was all my fault…” Elena cried, and then caught sight of his arm, “Oh! You’re bleeding!”

“We’re both in one piece. Don’t beat yourself up over it. Just do me a favor and grab the first aid kit, will ya?”

Elena, fumbled through the bags, tossing the contents onto the ground in her search for the first kit.

“Yo, ‘Lena… calm down,” said Reno, “It’s not like I’m dyin’…”

“R-right,” she replied, flustered. At last she found what she was looking for. Reno had pulled his shirt off to get a better look at the injury, and was gently prodding the ragged edges of the laceration.

“Damn, it got me good,” Reno said, “Probably gonna need stitches when we get back.”

Elena knelt down beside him and opened the kit.

“Make sure ya clean it real good,” Reno said, “Last thing I need is for it to get infected.”

Elena nodded, and opened the bottle of alcohol, pouring some onto a piece of gauze. Reno flinched as she pressed it against the gash, feeling the sting of the antiseptic seeping into his flesh. Elena was wiping the dirt away from the wound as gently as she could, but by the look on Reno’s face, she could tell it was hurting him quite a bit.

“Sorry,” she whispered, adding more alcohol, and resuming her assault on the injury.

“S’ok. I’m good…” Reno said through gritted teeth, though he looked decidedly relieved when she was finished. Elena wrapped his arm in a bandage, applying gentle pressure to slow the bleeding. When she was done, Reno groaned and climbed to his feet, carefully pulling his shirt back on.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” asked Elena, noticing how Reno winced as he stood.

“Yeah… just a little banged up is all. Gonna be sore as hell in the morning,” he replied.

---

Their arrival on the beach was made by moonlight. Both Turks were tired, filthy, and more than ready for their punishment to be over.

“Ugh… do we have to bother with the stupid tent?” Reno whined, “Let’s just sleep on the sand…”

“Yeah, and what are you going to do if it starts raining again?”

“Lie on my back, open my mouth, and hope I drown in my sleep,” came the dry answer. The comment set Elena off laughing.

“The worst part of that,” Elena said, regaining control of herself, “is that I can almost picture you actually trying it.”

“Fine… we’ll set up the damn tent,” Reno said, smirking.

It didn’t take them long, and eventually they were both ready to be wrapped snugly in their sleeping bags. Elena checked Reno’s bandage one more time, and pulled it a little tighter, before finally letting him lay down to go to sleep. But just before he managed to drift off, she prodded him back to the land of the living by shining her flashlight at him, eager to ask him the one question that had been nagging her for days now.

“Hey Reno?”

“Yeah?” he mumbled sleepily.

“About Mr. Foo-foo…” she began.

“I thought I asked you to drop it,” Reno replied, defensively.

“I just… I wanna know. That’s all. I keep trying to make sense of you, and every time I think I’ve got a handle on you, something new comes up,” said Elena, “I-I know you said you couldn’t trust me… but…”

Reno sighed softly, and rolled over to face her. “I didn’t mean that,” he replied, “And I’m sorry I said it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really… I was angry at ya, that’s all. Doesn’t really make me any less of a jerk, but that’s why I said it,” Reno explained, “… Alright, look. If I tell you, you have to swear that not a word of it leaves this tent. Like I said before, it’s personal. Who I tell is my business.”

“I promise… I won’t breathe a word to anyone, ever. Not even to Tseng,” she said, seriously. Reno was silent for a minute.

“You remember I told you my mom gave him to me, right?” Reno said at last.

“Yeah,” she nodded, thinking back to the time they’d been trapped together in an elevator, and she’d badgered him about the toy until that little bit of information had slipped out.

“I was five when I got him. I lived with my mom down in Sector Two. Born there, ya know? It was always just the two of us. Never knew my dad… to be honest, I’m not entirely sure she even knew who he was. We didn’t have a whole lot of money, so I didn’t get toys real often. And I sure as fuck never got new toys. But Mr. Foo-foo was different. He was a present for my fifth birthday. My mom must’ve saved for weeks to buy him,” he said, pulling the toy out of his pack, and turning it over, fondly, in his hands.

Elena was on the edge of her seat; Reno never talked about his life before the Turks, at least not to her. It had always been something of a mystery. Sure, she knew a few little details she’d picked up here and there… that he’d grown up in the slums… that he’d been recruited by Tseng when he was just sixteen… that he still had some friends down below who were engaged in… less than legal professions. But nothing specific about his life had ever been volunteered, and she’d never had the courage to come right out and ask him about it until now.

“I guess that’s why it meant so much. It wasn’t anything I needed… probably could’ve fed us both for a month on what it cost. It was just to make me happy,” he continued, “… Mom… died… less than a year later.”

Reno paused a moment, regarding her closely, “Ah, hell… might as well be honest here. The truth is she… she killed herself. I found her the next morning. And then I got dragged off to a youth center. Mr. Foo-Foo was the only thing they let me take with me. Tch… not that I had a whole lot else, besides the clothes on my back, and they even took those. Stuck me in one of those god-awful uniforms they give the kids at those places. You know, I can barely even remember what Mom looked like, sometimes? Just that she was really beautiful with red hair and blue-green eyes like mine. Mr. Foo-foo is all I have left of her.”

Elena could feel tears welling up in her eyes, and she tried desperately to blink them back. That was such an awful thing for anyone to go through… and he just a little boy when it happened. She felt horrible about teasing him, now. She must have sniffled or something, because Reno suddenly looked up at her.

“Ah, fuck… no. I knew I shouldn’t’ve told ya that part. No, no, no… Come on, Elena, don’t you dare start cryin’ on me here,” Reno said, eyes widening in panic.

“S-sorry,” she said, taking a deep breath and reining in her emotions before they got the better of her. Reno relaxed slightly, seeing that she wasn’t going to start sobbing.

“I fucking hate seein’ women cry…” he muttered, more to himself than to her. “So that’s the story,” Reno said, “Now… I’m trusting you. Remember, you promised…”

“Not a word to anyone,” Elena replied. Reno nodded, and slid back into his sleeping bag, taking the stuffed bunny with him. Elena, too, lay back, staring up at the domed ceiling of the tent for a a few minutes.

“Reno?” she called.

“Mmph… Now what, Elena? Can’t a guy get any sleep around here?” he answered, sounding as if he’d been startled out of the very edge of slumber.

“How come you’ve never told Tseng and Rude about Mr. Foo-foo?”

Reno was quiet so long, that for a moment, Elena thought that he’d ignored her and just gone back to sleep.

“Tseng knows too damn much about me as it is… No point in adding more baggage to what he’s already carrying,” Reno said at last, “And Rude… He’s a great friend and all, but he’s not the sentimental type, ya know? Doesn’t hold onto stuff from his past. He’d understand in his own way, but it wouldn’t really mean to him what it means to me.”

“So why’d you decide to tell me? They’re both closer to you than I am… Is it just ’cause I accidentally found out about Mr. Foo-foo?”

“Elena, you talk too much,” Reno said, yawning widely, “Gimme a break… I’m tired.”

“Last question, I promise.”

“Fine… I told you ’cause you’d understand,” Reno said.

“Why do you think that?”

“Thought you said that was the last question…”

“… Sorry.”

Elena rolled over, and closed her eyes, trying to sleep. She heard Reno sigh softly.

“You forget or somethin’? … I’ve been over your apartment with a goddamn toothbrush,” he said from the darkness.

“Huh?”

“Back when Tseng made me your slave for a day… When you made me clean the whole place. There’s a picture in your living room of you as a kid. You’re standing next to your dad in a park somewhere, holding a doll… it’s got yellow hair, and a blue dress, and pink ribbons…”

“Her name’s Marci…” Elena said absently, amazed that Reno could recall so much detail from one photo among the dozen or so on that shelf. She thought back to the day that picture was taken. It was a few months before her father had been killed in a reactor accident.

“You still have her. I saw her… sittin’ on your bed. Figured since you kept her all this time, you’d understand about Mr. Foo-foo.”

Elena didn’t quite know what to say, though she felt a new understanding of Reno beginning for her.

“So… Any more questions you’re just dyin’ to have answered?” Reno asked, utterly killing the moment.

“N-no,” she stammered.

“Good… I’m going back to sleep. Don’t wake me up again, okay?” he said, somewhat irritably. Elena was silent, not wanting to bother him any more than she already had. After all, he sounded like he was exhausted. Elena, on the other hand, was suddenly very much awake. She rolled onto her side, but found that to be uncomfortable. She rolled onto her back, but that was even worse. She tried her other side, and then her stomach with the same results, finally repeating the futile pattern… her back again, her side, her back, her other side…

“For crying out loud, Elena!” Reno lamented, “Stop with the gymnastics and go to sleep!”

“S-sorry, Reno…”

But she couldn’t seem to find a position that would let her sleep. Her mind was just too wide awake. After a few more minutes of her tossing and turning, she heard Reno swear under his breath. She froze, half expecting him to start yelling at her for keeping him up half the night. There was a soft rustle, and the sound of the zipper of Reno’s sleeping bag, and then she heard Reno moving around. For a moment, she thought he was just going to leave the tent altogether and take his chances with the possible rain… a thought given more merit when she heard what could only be his sleeping bag sliding over the canvas floor of the tent. But a moment later the sleeping bag flopped down right next to hers eradicating the two or so feet of personal space they’d left between them, and the Turk slid back inside of it. Reno wrapped an arm around her waist, and gently urged her closer to him, pressing himself lightly against her back.

A moment later, she felt something soft and fuzzy pressed into her hands… and judging by the shape, she realized that there was only one thing it could possibly be.

“Now… Go. To. Sleep, Elena,” Reno said, gently.

“Reno?” she prodded, as there was one more thing on her mind.

“Oh, for… What now?” he asked, though this time he sounded slightly more amused than annoyed.

“How come you’re suddenly not calling me ‘Lena anymore?”

” ‘Cause I know ya can’t stand it,” he admitted, “I figure I could do at least one thing to stop bein’ such a dick all the time.”

“Reno?” she said, yawning. She could barely keep her eyes open now.

“Yeah?”

“You can call me ‘Lena, if you want. It’s kinda starting to grow on me.” Elena curled herself around Mr. Foo-foo and finally drifted off.

” ‘Night, ‘Lena,” he whispered, protectively pulling her just a little closer.

---

Later the next day, the thumping of helicopter blades broke the peace and quiet of the beach. Elena looked up and spotted the large craft with the Shinra logo emblazoned on the side. She tossed down the shells she’d been picking up as she walked, and headed back up the beach to where Reno was stretched out on the sand, stripped to the waist, enjoying the sun.

“Looks like our ride’s here,” he commented, sitting up and shoving his sunglasses up to where his goggles normally rested on his forehead.

The helicopter set down several yards away, the rotors whining to a stop. Tseng stepped out onto the beach, and made his way over to the two Turks.

“Glad to see you’ve survived,” he said, regarding them both.

“Piece of cake, Boss,” Reno drawled, not bothering to get up.

“Is that so?” Tseng asked, “What happened to your arm?”

“Totally your fault, boss-man… that trail you marked out is treacherous,” Reno replied, with a smirk.

“He fell,” Elena supplied, “Actually, we both did, on the northern side of the cliffs… but Reno got the worst of it. It’s a pretty deep cut, sir. I think it might need stitches.”

“Nothin’ too serious,” Reno added, “Here… I’ll give ya a hand with the gear.”

Reno held out his hand, and Elena quickly moved to take it and help him up. Tseng raised an eyebrow in surprise. Not only were the two of them being remarkably civil… they actually seemed to be getting along…

“… Alright,” he said, said suspiciously, “Who are you, and what have you done with my Turks.”

Reno shrugged.

“What’d’ya mean?” he asked innocently. Tseng just shook his head and waved them off to get their things.

---

“Ha… I think we freaked him out a little,” said Reno, once they were out of earshot, “This could be a definite advantage…”

“W-what do you mean?” Elena asked, caught a little off guard.

“I mean,” Reno said, grinning widely, “… just think of the havoc we could wreak if we teamed up in the name of mischief…”

“Reno!” Elena said, her eyes widening, “You can’t be serious! After the trouble we’ve already gotten into?”

“Come on, ‘Lena… we make a pretty good team. What’d’ya say?”

“Well…”

“Join me, ‘Lena… Come over to the dark side…” Reno said in hushed tones, holding out his hand and grinning maniacally. Elena didn’t hesitate. She shook it, letting a matching grin spread across her own face.

-fin-