Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Elena knows what being drunk is like. She’s not a prude like Reno goes around telling everyone she is. She just knows that hangovers aren’t ideal when she has work the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, and honestly Turks don’t get weekends off so there’s no real good time to just get drunk .

That’s what she tells herself when she finds herself stationed at Gold Saucer for a mission she is unfortunately paired with Reno for.

It’s the mantra she keeps in her head. Being drunk dulls my reflexes , she tells herself as Reno raids the mini-fridge in their themed hotel room. Being drunk leads to more mistakes , she reminds herself when Reno whips out the sleek black company card and beelines for the bar in the Wonder Square. Being drunk on the job is a bad idea , she repeats when she inevitably drags Reno back to the hotel room, hoisting him up and regretting agreeing to this stupid mission in the first place.

“You’ll be posing as a vacationing couple,” Tseng had told theme during their debrief. “After all, most customers of the Gold Saucer are newlyweds and families. You won’t stick out this way.”

Elena had stared at him. Reno had laughed.

Now, Elena stares at the ceiling of their hotel room, Reno half splayed over her on the bed and dead to the world because of course he wanted to try every stupid Gold Saucer specialty on the menu and of course there were like, fifteen plus whatever he’d poured down his throat from the mini-fridge beforehand. Elena doesn’t remember him eating a thing, either. He’s even heavier than she thought, with all his lanky limbs and refusal to eat proper meals. She resigns herself to being stuck here till he wakes up. And she does not want to wake him up.

He breathes the long, slow, steady breathes of someone fast asleep, blowing the stench of alcohol into her face, and she wonders why Tseng even stationed them here. There were far more important missions, and Elena can’t see how their slum-thug target is so high on their list of priorities.

Or maybe Tseng still thinks of her as a rookie.

She tilts her head to the side to glare at Reno. Whatever. Their target’s not even here yet anyway.

~

“You don’t even know why we’re here, do you?” Reno asks in the morning, still wrapped up in his clothes from the day before and the sheets he’d unconsciously pulled around himself.

Elena’s already awake and showered, a towel wrapped around her and blonde hair in wet clumpy strands with a toothbrush between her teeth. She’d gotten up as soon as she was awake and Reno had rolled off her enough to not disturb him when she made her escape. Her Shin-Ra issued laptop is open on the desk to view the Gold Saucer’s security cameras for any sign of their target.

She gets up and walks past him to spit into the bathroom sink. “Of course I know why we’re here,” she says testily as she adjusts where she’d secured her towel. “We’re taking out a target.”

Reno grins, sleep-addled and hungover. Elena had specifically kept the curtains closed and laid out a glass of water and painkillers for him on the bedside table because she did not want to hear him grouse about his own bad decisions.

“Tseng booked this place a full week, ‘Laney,” he says with a yawn. “It’s not gonna take a week to take out one of Corneo’s dumb cronies.”

“We don’t know that. He slipped away pretty easily in Midgar,” Elena says, washing her mouth out and splashing water over her face. “And we don’t get vacations.”

“We’re a vacationing couple ,” Reno says, rolling over to starfish over the sheets.

“So?”

He sighs, dramatically loud, and props himself up on his side to watch as she sits back down at the desk and glances over the screen for signs of their target. It hadn’t taken her long to hook up to Gold Saucer’s system, bypassing any security triggers and finding the cameras set in the most lucrative spots.

“Do you ever take breaks?” Reno asks.

“Do you ever take anything seriously?”

“Rude says he’s still in Costa,” he says, waving his PHS at her. “He won’t be here till the end of the week.”

Elena grits her teeth and turns to him, wet hair whipping around and slapping her cheek. “Then why are we here?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!” he says with a wince at her loud tone. “You haven’t taken a break since you joined the team. Tseng is forcing you on a break.”

Elena stares at him, openly perplexed and angry. “Why?” she asks emphatically.

Reno finally sits up, planting his feet on the floor and grabbing the glass of water and pills she’d set out for him. “Because you do shit like this,” he says, swirling the water and gesturing toward the laptop. “You aren’t even dressed yet and you’re hyper-fixating. Did you just dunk yourself under the water for a minute and call yourself clean?”

“That’s ridiculous--”

“ You’re ridiculous,” Reno corrects, smirking. “So, take a break. Our boss literally commands it.”

Elena huffs, slamming the laptop shut. “Fine.”

Chapter Text

After some coaxing, Elena decides that maybe she should at least do her hair. It’s not like she didn’t pack things, it’s just that she didn’t realize this was actually going to be a real vacation. Sure, her suitcase is full of dresses and makeup and wedge heels and sea salt hair spray, but it’d kind of only been a precaution for when security did their usual bag checks. She didn’t want to look like a Turk when she’s supposed to be playing the part of a newlywed tourist.

So Elena gets out her blow dryer and twists her hair into beachy waves, setting it with salt spray and weaving three loose braids against the side of her head. It doesn’t take her long, her fingers moving in practiced motions to get it all in place. Then, she starts going through her suitcase for a suitable outfit.

“I thought we’d have to buy you something from the gift shop,” Reno says, still lounging on the bed.

“Aren’t you going to get ready?” Elena asks, annoyed as she sorts through her options, holding up dress after dress. “You’re the one who wants to do this touristy nonsense.”

“Correction: Tseng wants both of us to do this touristy nonsense.”

Elena groans, finally picking a pink halter dress. She stomps off into the bathroom again to change and slams the door.

Something about changing in front of all the skeletons in their room was chilling and creepy as hell, and she still hasn’t forgiven Reno for laughing at her when they’d first arrived. She’d turned sheet-white as they entered the suite for the first time, and immediately began shoving all the skeleton deco into the closet.

Fitting for a Turk, she thinks now, to have them in there.

It takes a while for her to get the zipper in the back all the way up, but she manages somehow. Then, she throws on some lipgloss and stares at herself in the mirror.

Maybe it’s that she’s spent the last few months wearing nothing but an ill-fitting, too-big, black suit for a uniform, but she hardly recognizes herself in what is essentially a skin-tight dress that actually shows her figure. And her boobs. They’re visible.

Elena cringes.

There’s a knock at the bathroom door. “Yoohoo, you done in there?”

She sighs. And opens the door. And promptly elbows Reno in the gut when he lets out a low whistle.

~

“What do people even do on vacation?” Elena asks as they make their way to the Wonder Square.

Reno shrugs. “Relax,” he says. “Do fun stuff. Ignore any vague notion of responsibility.”

“Not that you need a vacation to do that,” Elena snipes.

The walk isn’t long, and as they leave the gloomy cobwebs of the hotel, the park opens up to them in a shimmer of bright lights and cheery fair music that’s way too repetitive.

“This way,” Reno says simply, pushing her gently in the right direction. “You really a first-timer here?”

Elena flushes. “So what if I am?”

“Just means we gotta try everything this place has to offer.”

“Everything?”

“Everything,” Reno says seriously, hand over his heart.

Wonder Square is the only part of the entire park that has food, and if Elena’s being honest, she’s been starving since she first woke up. From a quick glance around, there are also themed gift shops, a fortune-telling stall, and other mini-attractions (for instance, the fully-stocked bar Reno had gotten absolutely trashed at last night).

As if on cue, he starts leading them over directly to the bar. “Want a drink?” he asks casually

“I swear to god if you start drinking this early in the damn day,” Elena says, grabbing on tightly to his arm and stopping him in his tracks. “I will leave your ass plastered to the floor instead of dragging you back this time.”

Reno laughs. “Okay fine, let’s eat. You skipped breakfast right?”

“You did too.” Elena sounds utterly petulant and Reno laughs harder.

It doesn’t take long for them to order something and grab a table. Elena unenthusiastically digs in, surveying the Wonder Square between bites of a BLT and judging everything with a discerning eye.

“Are you seriously canvassing this place?”

“Yes.”

Reno rolls his eyes. “Okay, let’s start easy. We’re here to relax and not give a fuck for a while so…  what do you do for fun?”

“Lots of stuff,” Elena says.

“Like…?”

“I… read books.”

“And?” Reno prods.

Elena stares at her bottle of water. “Uh.”

Reno stares at her. A long pause draws out in utter silence save for the carnival music and chattering crowds around them. She can feel a flush draw it’s way up her neck.

He sighs. “Have you ever gotten your fortune told?”

“No?”

“Okay,” Reno says slowly. “That’s what we’re doing first.”

~

Elena stares into the glossy eyes of a robotic cat AI named Cait Sith, who sits atop a comically large moogle. Currently, it’s shuffling a deck of tarot cards and peering into a glowing crystal ball that’s definitely being lit up by a black light if the neon sheen around the room is anything to go by.

“This is the fortune teller?” she murmurs disbelievingly, nudging Reno’s elbow.

He just grins and leans back in his chair, waiting for the cat’s answer to his ridiculous question.

The cat’s paws are deft in shuffling the cards, and finally it sets down three cards on the table and waves it’s paws over the crystal ball. “It seems you’re in for a bumpy ride. Unresolved issues from the past may prevent your honeymoon phase from lasting much longer,” it says in an obviously exaggerated mystic voice.

Elena rolls her eyes. “I mean, you’re a chainsmoker and an alcoholic,” she says.

“You’re a workaholic who never spends time at home,” Reno shoots back.

“This relationship is not meant to last, unless you begin making the efforts to listen to each other and take new actions,” Cait Sith says seriously. “The cards predict a fork in your road to happiness.”

“This is the most depressing fortune ever,” Elena mutters.

Then, Cait Sith drops the voice and says cheerily, “If you want to guarantee taking the right path in the future, please buy one of our love charms!”

Elena narrows her eyes. “Scam artist.”

She groans when Reno actually shells out gil enough for two the charms, and they leave the stall wearing the tackiest matching necklaces she’s ever seen. Even worse than those BFF necklaces she used to see on girls in school. Maybe a drink wouldn’t be such a bad idea if this is any omen as to what the rest of the day will be like.

Elena is about to drag Reno to the bar of her own free will when he grins at her widely. “You know Reeve Tuesti?”

Of course she does. The Head of Urban Development at Shin-Ra. “Yeah, why?”

Reno snickers. “That’s his lil’ pet project, Cait Sith. He programmed the AI and designed it from the ground up. It’s here right now on its first mission.”

Elena scoffs. “What, scamming tourists?”

“Actually,” Reno says with a wry smirk, “this is just a cover. Cait Sith is gonna infiltrate AVALANCHE for us. Feed us info on the inside. Apparently they’re heading in this direction, and Tseng’s taken care to make sure they get stranded out in the desert ‘round here.”

Elena stares at him. “The cat is gonna be a spy?”

“Hell yeah.”

Well, that’s certainly news to her. Elena glances back at the overly decorated stall with a new perspective, and a strange new respect for Reeve Tuesti. “That’s crazy…”

“So, I know I said Tseng wants us to rest up and take it easy, but mind if we check in on Cait Sith every day? We just wanna make sure it doesn’t have any tells, y’know?”

“Absolutely,” Elena responds immediately. She definitely wants to help out with something this important.

Reno grins. “Of course you’d be up for a bit of work.”