Elena gazed up at the stars that covered the sky. You could see them again now that meteor's red light didn't cause devastating light pollution. Meteor was gone, and so was her world. Her life had crumbled in these past few weeks. Midgar was in crisis; Shinra was struggling to get back on its feet after the decimation of its main headquarters. It had only just reached them that Rufus Shinra was still alive and now they had to report back to the stricken city to help. And most importantly, Tseng was dead, before they could even go out. She missed him a lot and his death made her even more convinced she was going to wind up some old mad woman who lived with fifty cats. She was only twenty-one, but this was still firm in her mind as her fated destiny.

Something shuffled in the bushes near to them. Sitting up, Elena's eyes darted around. Why did Rude suggest this place to sleep in? And why oh why had Reno said yes? Well that one was easy; Reno was lazy and didn't want to have to go stomping around anymore. She glanced over at her partners in the Turks. Rude, silent, tall, bald and a bit creepy really. Reno, messy, wild, tall, but for all these faults he was a great Turk, better than she knew she would ever be. Still, he looked unhealthily thin to her. The bushes nearby rustled again and she edged closer to her partners. She reached in her pockets and flicked out her dark glasses. The others wore them all the time, Rude always had his eyes covered and Reno used then to hold back his messy hair.

Those damn bushes were at it again, what was in them for god's sake? She was about to investigate was something leapt out of them. With a small undignified yelp she jumped backwards and tripped over something promptly landing on top of it. The monster, one of the many that haunted this plain, growled at her before running off into the night. With a sigh Elena relaxed.

"Err, Elena? Could you kinda move?"

With a start she realised that what she'd tripped over and was now sat on happened to be her commanding officer, even if it was Reno. With a unceremonious yelp she fell off of him and onto the grass. Looking up at him, for he was now well awake and sitting up, she cried, "What did you do that for?" Grinning at her in a very Reno way he shrugged "Well for some reason I didn't want your heavy backside say on me!" Elena fumed. "Heavy! Just cause I fell over doesn't mean I'm fat!" Reno only leaned back on his slim arms and smirked. "I didn't say 'fat' all I mean is you're a little bulky." "Bulky!" Elena was ready to kill. "Yeah, don't worry though, that suit hides everything. You look completely flat stomached." Elena's rage quelled a little. "And completely flat chested." Elena leapt forward at her prey who promptly moved. "RENO!" she yelled fuming with anger.

Her cry of rage woke the other sleeping Turk, who as ever regarded them silently and unnoticed. He watched impassively as Elena launched herself at Reno who was laughing at her fury.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Elena was really going for it. "Oh yeah?" Reno idly spun his nightstick in one hand. 'No, Rude thought, don't be so stupid as to take on Reno, Elena.' But it seemed that actually logical thought was being blocked in Elena's mind as she charged right at the taller red head. With a well known calculating expression on his face Reno swung the nightstick round. Elena's shriek as the electrical charge hit her was nasty, although it probably wasn't serious. Her normally prim suit was a slightly smoking mess and her hair was falling into her eyes. Reno sniggered and sat down leaning against a rock waiting for Elena to scream something. But for once she let it drop, and glared at Reno before rolling over to get some sleep. With a non committal shrug Reno did the same. All Rude could do was grin; the squabbling kids were growing up after all.

Elena was still mad as she lay down, she hated to admit defeat but if Reno thought he'd gotten away with shocking her like that he had another thought coming. Elena knew many other more devious ways of taking on the man she'd been originally sent to replace.

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Elena looked through the lenses of her black glasses as the massive Mako city of Midgar hit the horizon dominating everything. It was weird to think of the metallic mass as home, but home it was, to her and all the Turks. She couldn't see the state of the Shinran building, it was out of sight high up on the upper plate, but the slums looked about the same. Reno and Rude had been quiet for the whole of the journey so far, either not wanting to talk or still annoyed about last night. She knew she was, all this walking had given her enough time to think of some really evil things to do to Reno when they were back.

She got a better view as they crossed the last few metres to the sector two door, all that seemed wrong were a few pipes had fallen from the top plate. But for all she knew the upper plate was destroyed, she hoped not, her apartment was up there. At the door Reno flicked out a small card with his name and Shinra ID on it and passed by a laser on the door. At once the metal slid open for the Turks to enter Midgar.

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It wasn't half as bad as she'd expected. Apparently Holy had kept Meteor away from destroying anything more and the damage caused by the Mako cannon was already under repair. About two thirds of Shinra HQ was still in use and that included the Turks offices. The upper floors were completely wasted and teams were scouring them for remains. Rufus had however ordered the deactivation of all Mako reactors under Shinran control and Midgar was running on empty. A man called Reeve, who Rufus seemed to have adopted as his new advisor, had started a project to set up massive solar panels on the dead plains around the city and power was expected to be restored in a week.

All in all it left Elena with plenty of scheming time to spare. Reno was successfully managing to drive her round the bend. His lack of drive and dedication to his work was a sharp contrast to her eager approach. If only he wasn't such a mess! His hair was always uncontrollable and his uniform was never neatly done up and his collar and cuff buttons just hung loose. And this was the guy that was being appointed as the new head of the Turks after Tseng's death!

Well, at least they had a mission coming up, new orders to complete. They had to flush out some rebels who were trying to sabotage the Solar Flare project as it was being called. Murder and kidnapping was all part of being a Turk. The rebels were rumoured to have set up in the Sector three slums.

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Elena ran close on the rebel's heels as he made a dash across the junkyard leading from the rundown shack that was their base. This was why she'd joined the Turks, the thrill. She came close enough to hit the guy hard on the base of his neck before kicking his unconscious form down the junk heap. Turning sharply she headed back to assist Rude with the rebel he was currently fighting. Her arrival was distraction enough as she threw a loose metal sheet at the ragged girl. Rude quickly had her down as she turned to see Elena. The next job was to find Reno and the rebels he'd been chasing. Hauling herself up onto the roof of the ramshackle building Elena saw Reno facing three rebels on a flat area of ground above the piles of junk. Glancing momentarily down at her he motioned for her to block their path of escape. Swiftly she did so as Reno charged taking out two with an powerful electric shock and Elena happily did away with the other as he tried to make an escape. All in all the mission had been highly successful. Rebels taken out with one remaining for questioning by Shinra.

"Good job girlie" Reno taunted as he jumped down from the mess of metal onto the roof. Elena grimaced as he walked over to the roof's edge to jump down. With a sudden rush of anger she lunged forward pushing him hard from behind. With a yelp Reno fell off the roof and hit the ground below. Elena could help but giggle as he pulled himself upright and Rude was laughing openly. His clothes were covered in dust and he glared angrily at Elena with his Mako eyes.

"Got ya Reno" Elena said composing herself. All Reno could do was toss his hair back over his shoulder and take off his dust covered jacket. Elena's eyes widened as she saw a fresh blood stain on the back of the white shirt near Reno's shoulder blade. "Reno! What the hell's that on your back?" With an annoyed moan Reno looked at his blood stained fingertips gained from the bloody cloth. "Fucking hell, alright I'm gonna go back to Shinra and get this cleared up. You two go home already." Flinging his coat over his shoulder he walked off into the ever lasting Midgar night. "Rude!" Elena wailed "You can't just let him go off injured like that! I'm sure there's a rule!" Behind his glasses Rude rolled his eyes. Being with Elena when she didn't have Reno around to distract her was like being with a five year old. "If Reno says I can go I'm as good as gone okay?" Elena scowled. "Yeah, right off to the nearest bar." Rude smiled at the irked girl. "No big deal Lena, cool off already." "You sound like Reno! Could you take this seriously for five minutes!" Rude shook his head and gave Elena a nod before heading of to the near bar round these parts. Elena just stood there pouting. Nobody paid her any attention, well she was going to follow orders at least.

Reno winced as a bolt of pain shot through his shoulder. One of the rebels must have cut it when he wasn't watching. The adrenaline must have originally masked the pain, now it was really killing him.

"Hey mate. Now why don't you fork over yer gil?"

Reno sighed, he supposed he'd been asking for this really. Injured but in a suit, a perfect target for the many lowlife scum of the slums. He turned to see a rather disgusting rag clad knife wielding mugger leering at him. Forcing himself upright despite the pain Reno used his height to stare down at the lowlife. "Do you even have the faintest idea what I am?" he questioned in a very cynical tone. "Nah, and as long as I get yer gil I don't give a damn." The mugger grinned at Reno displaying a set of rotting yellow teeth. Reno was well aware he looked a mess, with a bloodstain on his ragged shirt and his jacket covered in dust thanks to Elena he wasn't exactly intimidating. But intimidating wasn't part of Reno's personality. "I'm a Turk" he told the mugger. "Yeah right mate, none of them come down ere, besides if yer were I'd be dead right nah." Reno knew that if this guy did try to fight him that the battle would be hard going on himself. His right arm was almost completely useless thanks to the gash on his shoulder. "Get lost" he snapped at the scum holding his nightstick loosely in his left hand. The mugger sneered and charged straight at Reno swinging the knife forwards, except he never reached him.

"You would have thought you could take care of yourself Reno" Elena's voice drifted over from the right.

Elena took in Reno's current state. He looked a lot worse than before. Obviously the wound was more serious than she'd anticipated. With his dirty clothes and unstable frame he looked a lot like the weirdo's you met around here. "Elena?" he questioned of her. "Yeah it's me lazy." She shoved away his arm and took his full weight for him. Putting her arm around his waist she realised he really was very thin compared to Rude. Probably cause he didn't eat enough or get enough sleep. Most people did stuff like that cause of stress, Reno did it by choice. With a sigh she headed off in the direction of Shinra helping a now barely awake Reno to walk. She knew she was getting his blood all over the side of her neat uniform. Reno was infuriating, even when he was just conscious he was annoying her in some way. Tseng would never do anything like that, but Tseng was dead.

Reno's red hair was falling in his eyes, with a flick of her wrist Elena moved them. That was another thing, did he even know the meaning of the word hairbrush? Elena spent most of the way back to Shinra listing all the bad things about Reno she could come up with. Eventually she managed to get to Shinra medical. Her irritation was only amplified by the half-hour she was forced to spend waiting. When Reno did emerge she saw the bandages under his lose shirt and could only think that he deserved them. The shirt was still stained with the same blood that now damaged hers. "Err, thanks Lena" Reno muttered looking uncomfortable. "I only did it cause of the regs you know" Elena snapped still annoyed. "Yeah well thanks for nothing than" Reno snapped back. "Oh yeah!" Elena shouted, the beginnings of a full scale argument loomed, but before Reno could reply the nurse hastily interjected. "Um, Miss, he's still not healed, so could you sort of see him home?" This suggestion irked Elena, but not half as much as the face Reno pulled when he realised he'd have to spend more time in her company. "Sure, I'll take the lazy jerk home" she told the nurse who scurried away afterwards. Spinning on her heels she turned to face Reno. Looking up at him with a expression of deep distaste she nodded in the direction of the door.

"So", Elena asked when they were back outside, "Where do you live?" Reno shrugged "Sector Six". Elena spun. "Six! That's ages away! I'm not walking over there!" Reno scowled at her, "Good, I'll go alone." Elena snorted, "Oh no you bloody well won't."

"Well, I don't see I have any other choice do you oh mighty one?"

"One."

"Oh yes? And what horrible suggestion has your brain spawned?"

"You spend the night at my place."

Reno gagged. "There's no way in hell!"

"Oh yes? I've heard you've spent the night at other female employee's homes."

"That's different. They aren't you."

"Oh yeah! Well you don't have any other option!"

With a grimace Reno silently nodded his approval. Elena smirked to herself. She'd got one over Reno; this was a day to remember. Grabbing his arm, and quickly grabbing the other one when she heard his cry of pain Elena half dragged Reno into Sector One, here on the upper plate it was quite nice. Her apartment was thankfully not to far and they soon arrived. As soon as Elena had fumbled around with the key and opened the door she roughly shoved Reno inside.

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Okay. In the next chapter Elena and Reno have to cope with each other for a whole night. Will they engage in (ahem) certain activities to occupy their time?

Well you'll just have read it won't you!

And Read and Review cause it just takes a second and if you don't I hope you get a guilt trip.

-Darkie (I wrote this so nah!)

And I took the title from 'Buffy' it's the last thing Xander and Cordelia say before they kiss for the first time.