[FFVII] Baker's Dozen;
Title: Baker's Dozen Fandom: Final Fantasy VII Character/s: Elena, Reno, Rude, Tseng Words: 371 Notes: 15 Minute Ficlets, #70.
When she'd received the call, received the documentation, she'd thought she was being accepted because they had seen that she had skills. She had thought she was being recruited because they'd rather have those skills working for Shinra than working against - and it was true, in a way.
In another way, she'd been recruited to fill a position, because the Turks were one man down and she was the best markswoman in her class, and hell, there hadn't been a female Turk in long enough that Scarlet was starting to kick up a fuss - so they'd given her basic training and thrown her onto what was meant to be an intimate, close-knit team, and she'd felt like the bun that made the baker's dozen.
Reno had hated her on sight, and maybe later she'd work out that was more because while he was in the infirmary and useless as shit, Reno'd hated anyone who could do what he couldn't, i.e. walk, and that first impression had counted for a lot, even after he recovered.
Rude hadn't said much, and it had taken her a while to work out that Rude just didn't say much, period - not with his mouth, anyway, and it'd take her a few weeks longer to read the visual cues, so for the time being she just felt like that thirteenth bun; not really necessary and for all intents and purposes out of the equation.
The only one who'd really given her anything of himself was Tseng, and when they found him in the Temple like that she'd felt like if she said anything she'd just scream and never stop screaming--
And so when they'd asked, when they'd suggested, she'd been so angry, she'd been so lonely, and what the hell else had they expected her to do? What was she supposed to do?
"I'll go," she said, and stared at Reno calmly while he swore, and into Rude's dark glasses like she saw everything going on behind them. She was more than just the thirteenth bun; more than an extra. She wasn't only there to fill a hole, or be a hole; she was in, and she was going, and when she found them...