Absolute
Error
Chapter
Three
As Tseng pulled
her back from the window, Aeris collapsed. Losing her freedom, her home and
Sephiroth all in one
day had taken it out of her, and she found herself unable to support her weight.
As she knelt, sobbing, on the floor,
Reno strolled casually in from the cockpit.
"Hey,
Tseng, can I have this one? I quite like the look of her!" Tseng scowled
at him
"Professor Hojo wants her, so the answer's a 'no'." Reno made a face,
"Why does that old goat want her?" Tseng frowned,
"She's
the last Ancient, don't you ever listen to our orders? To blow up the pillar
and kidnap the last Ancient: Aeris Gainsborough." Reno ignored the last
question and instead reached out a hand, brushing
Aeris's hair from her face.
"D'ya
think he'd notice if she was a little bit 'used' already?" Tseng raised
an eyebrow,
shrugged and got up.
"I
give up" he said, walking into the cockpit. Reno 'V' signed Tseng, who
didn't see, and knelt
down in front of Aeris.
"Hi,
I'm Reno" he said to her.
"Hi, I know" she replied quietly.
"I'm
sorry we had to kidnap you like that, only orders are orders, and -"
"Don't apologise" Aeris interrupted, "Maybe it's better this
way"
she sighed, looking up at him with large, aquamarine eyes. That was all Reno
could take. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his mouth against hers
in a passionate kiss. Aeris did not, could not, pull away. She figured that,
seeing as Sephiroth had been killed in the explosion (she had not seen him escape),
nothing really mattered any more. Just as long as he did not try to go any further.
As Reno pulled away, Rude entered.
"Reno,
you're hopeless!" he exclaimed. Reno grinned, "She's special. She
doesn't slap me or anything!" Rude sighed,
"She doesn't slap you because she's not like the sluts you pick up at
Wall Market, but Hojo'll eat you alive if he finds out you've been messing with
his specimen." Reno shuddered, then
smirked "Betcha he would eat me alive, too! Sick, twisted pervert ..."
As the two Turks began slagging off the
professor, Aeris, who had been fearfully listening to all that they said about
him, started to sob again as she heard
stories of how perverted he was, how strange and creepy and twisted. "Aw,
shit!" exclaimed Reno, "I'd forgotten
you were there!" Rude shook his head, "Sorry, Miss Gainsborough, he's
- well - he's not THAT bad ... probably
...", but the damage was done. Reno knelt down in front of the crying girl.
"Geez, I'm not very good at this
'comforting' thing ..." he said, wondering what to do. "That's because
you've never done it before" commented
Rude. "Well, have you?" snapped Reno, anger glinting in his
eyes. "No ... " muttered Rude, sheepishly. "Well,
then ..." Said Reno, as he turned his attention back to Aeris. "Um
... so ... how old are you, anyway?" he questioned
her. "I'm twenty," she said through her tears. "Hey, four years
younger than me! An' six years younger than ol'
Rude here!" Reno commented, cheerfully. His face fell, "C'mon, give
us a smile, please?" She managed a small smile
through her tears and Reno leant forward and hugged her, whispering in her ear
"I'll look after you. I'm not such a
bad guy, y'know. I just have a job to do ... "He leant back and stood up,
"Maybe I'm getting the hang of this ... "
he grinned. As the helicopter landed outside the Shin-Ra building, Reno placed
a protective hand on Aeris's
shoulder. She reached up her own hand and clasped his in terror.