Picking up the Pieces

Authors Note:
I've tried to stick to the main story as much as possible, changing only enough to accomadate the new pairings.
I'm not sure how long this story is going to be, at least 30 chapters anyway.
I decided to write this story to tell the tale of a lot of stuff that happened "behind the scenes" and to try and "flesh out" the relationships between the characters of the FF7 universe. There probably wont be much sex straight away, I have to build up the characters and their aformentioned relationships first. :)


Chapter 1: ShinRa Inc.


Rufus Shinra watched the sun set over Junon from his wheelchair. He watched as the sky turned from orange, to red, to purple, and finally as darkness settled. It was the first sunset he had seen in five months.

Five months since Diamond Weapon attacked his company, five months since Meteor Fall, five months since the defeat of Sephiroth and five months since he lost the one person in the world he cared about the most…
A solitary tear slipped down his cheek and fell to the lapel of his robe, and he raised an unsteady hand to trace the wet trail with his finger.

There was a soft knock on the door and Rufus quickly composed himself.

“Enter,” he said, not liking how weak his voice sounded to his own ears.

The door was opened slowly and he was greeted with three familiar faces, Rude, Reno and Elena filed into the room. Rufus felt a twinge of anger at the pity he could see in their faces, but he quickly pushed it aside. He was in no position to feel proud.

“Have the search parties found anything?” he asked, ignoring the pathetic tone of hope that had crept into his voice.

“No sir, they haven’t found anything, so far” It was Rude who spoke, choosing his words carefully.

“I see” Rufus said, trying to hide his bitter disappointment, “tell them to keep looking”

“Yes sir” the three Turks said in unison.

“Reno and Elena, you are dismissed. Rude, please wait a moment.”

Elena saluted and left the room, Reno hesitated, and Rufus could see that he wanted to say something. But, miracle of miracles, the redhead kept his mouth shut and left with a small salute of his own.
Rufus turned to the remaining Turk and gestured toward a chair in the corner of the room. Rude sat down, looking decidedly uncomfortable.

“I appreciate all of the effort you’ve put into these recovery missions, these last few months have taken their toll on us all. Under the recent stresses we’ve faced, I feel that you have really shown your true colours.” Rufus paused and looked out into the night. “Rude, I am promoting you to head of The Turks. Reno is second in command and Elena third”

“Thank you sir”

“That is not all”, Rufus sighed and faced the other man again, “I need you and the other Turks to find a replacement for… Tseng”

“Yes sir”

“That is all, Rude. You are dismissed”

“Yes sir”

The bald man stood up abruptly and saluted before exiting. Rufus sat in his wheelchair and looked at his hands, he didn’t even notice when the tears came.

~

Rude shut the door to the President’s room and began to head up the lobby towards the elevator. Reno and Elena were waiting for him, questioning looks on both of their faces. As usual, it was Reno who opened his mouth first.

“What did he say?”

“He promoted me to first in command, you second, and Elena third”

“That it?”

“No, he wants us to…” Rude cleared his throat, “recruit a fourth member”

He watched as both of his associates gaped at the idea, equal looks of shock and anger fluttering across their features.

“But we may still find Tseng!” Elena hissed, her brown eyes wide and glassy

“He didn’t say that we wouldn’t” was Rude’s simple reply

“This is fuckin’ fucked up” Reno sighed, running a hand through his hair angrily, “That’s just as good as admitting that he’s dead, and you know it!”

“It’s not my call”

“There has to be something…” Elena trailed off, wringing her hands in a frustrated manner.

“Except for continuing to search, there isn’t anything we can do. Four sets of eyes are better than three.” Rude paused, wishing he could do more to make them feel better, wishing he could do more for Tseng… “Reno, as second in command, you are in charge of recruiting the new Turk and sorting out their basic training. Elena, order a new set of equipment. I’m going to go back out and search”

Rude stepped into the elevator and watched as the doors closed on his two shaken comrades, at that very moment they didn’t look like trained assassins at all, they looked like lost children.

~

Elena couldn’t believe what had happened. She felt like they were giving up on Tseng, no matter what Rude had said.
She balled her hands into fists, her short nails cutting deeply into her palms.

No, I won’t ever give up hope; I won’t give up on Tseng

She loved him too much, had been in love with him at one stage. As long as there was a thread of hope, she would hang onto it like a drowning woman.
Reno put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a little squeeze, jerking her out of her thoughts.

“You ok, Rookie?”

“No, but I guess we have a job to do” she replied, taking her phone out of her pocket

“Elena, Rufus hasn’t given up, he was closer to Tseng than any of us”

“I know, Reno. But I still don’t like this, it doesn’t feel right.”

“Don’t worry ‘bout it, it just means there’ll be five of us when Tseng comes back.” He sighed, his aquamarine eyes full of concern, “I’ll see you later, ok Rookie?”

She forced herself to smile and watched Reno step into the elevator.

“Look on the bright side, yo, you don’t have to go down to the military sector” he said, pulling a face as the doors closed.
Elena flipped open her phone and got to work.

~

Reno leaned against the wall of the elevator, lit up a cigarette and tried to shift the dark cloud hanging over his thoughts. He had never been very close to Tseng, could never really call him anything more than a co-worker, but he missed the man nonetheless. He knew it was much worse for Rude and Elena, especially for Elena, the poor girl had been head over heels for the uptight Wutain.
The whole situation still felt surreal, going into the Temple of the Ancients was the first mission that Tseng had personally gone on in years, and it turned out to be his last.
Reno took a deep drag of his cigarette as his conscience began nagging at him again.

If it was me ‘n Rude there, instead of Tseng and Elena, things could have turned out differently

The rational part of his mind knew that it probably wouldn’t have made much difference, or worse, that he or Rude would be the one missing from the team today. But in his heart, he wanted to believe that he could have changed things, he needed someone to blame, and it turned out to be himself.

He wanted to find Strife and whoever was left of his band of “merry men”. They had been there, they might have seen something, they might be able to help…
Rufus, however, did not want to involve any of the former AVALANCHE members.
It was because they didn’t know that Rufus had survived Diamond Weapon’s attack on Midgar, he didn’t want to take the chance that they may come to “finish the job”.

The elevator doors opened with a ping, and Reno stepped out into “lower” Junon, he had to find a new Turk by tomorrow, it was not going to be easy.
He walked down the street until he reached the main barracks, hoping to be impressed by a grunt or SOLDIER on the obstacle course.
Inside, there were about thirty troops, all training, and all utterly boring. Reno watched them for a while but he couldn’t see a single worthy individual in the bunch.
And so, he spent his day wandering the military sector of Lower Junon, trying to find anyone halfway decent.
Somehow, through the course of his search, he ended up in a bar for SOLDIERs; it seemed as good a place as any to scout for talent, and if he got a few drinks out of it, who was he to complain?

Reno opened his eyes and blinked at the sunlight; he rubbed his eyes and tried to figure out what was going on

What? Morning?

He sat up abruptly, his heart pounding. Here he was in a hotel room, it was morning and he doubted that he had found a new recruit in his drunken haze the night before.
His head was thumping, his eyes were sore and his mouth felt like shit. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and swore softly as the room began to spin.
That was when he heard a soft sigh from the other side of the bed, and he just about jumped through the roof.

He turned and saw the suspiciously human-shaped lump under the covers, and tried to remember who the fuck he had taken to bed last night.
He pulled the blanket slowly off the sleeping form, revealing a mop of brown hair, a pretty face, and eventually all of the young man that he had apparently spent last night with. Reno frowned at the lack of recognition, he couldn’t even remember speaking to this guy, never mind picking him up.

Reno reached out and shook him gently.

“Wake up, yo, I’ve gotta get ready for work”

Reno watched as the other man opened his eyes slowly, the eerie, bright blue colour instantly giving away his profession; it appeared that he was sharing this bed with a SOLDIER.

“Huh? Wha? What time is it?” the brunette slurred, his eyes unfocused and sleepy

Reno looked at the bedside clock, “Shit! It’s nearly ten; I was supposed to be at work like an hour ago! And Rude is going to have my balls for not doing my job yesterday! I don’t know what I’m gonna….” Reno trailed off as the solution to his problem became immediately apparent.

“You’re in SOLDIER, right?”

“Yeah, Second Class, I told you that last night” the brunette replied, looking a little hurt.

“Well, this is your lucky day kid; you just got promoted to the rank of Turk! Get dressed, yo, we have work to do.”

Reno laughed at the other man’s shocked expression.

“But…I…my superior…m…my things” he stuttered before being shushed by the redhead putting a finger to his lips.

“Don’t mind any of that, yo, Elena will take care of it.” Reno was feeling much better now; he could salvage this situation after all. “This is a little awkward, but, dude, I don’t remember your name...”

The other man looked a little offended, but not surprised. “It’s Adrian… Adrian Frayne”

“Well, Ade, get dressed, it’s time to go”

~

Rufus was trying to ignore his physician, but Gods, that woman never seemed to shut her mouth. He pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers, willing her to go away.

“… We’ll be starting the physiotherapy soon, so we can get you up and out of that wheelchair. Almost all of your burns have cleared up, and there don’t appear to be any permanent scars. I want to continue the Cure materia treatments for at least another month, but after that you should be feeling more or less like your old self again…”

He just stared at her and tried to nod in the right places. Feeling more or less like his old self again? What a joke, he could never be his old self again, not without Tseng…

Finally she finished talking, checked his blood pressure and left. There was a knock on the door.

“Come in”

It was his secretary, “Sir, your financial advisor is here and wishes to speak with you”

“Send her in, Joseph”

His financial advisor, Rose Stark, came in hesitantly, she was a small mousy woman who always looked like she was afraid that he would jump out of his chair and eat her, should the fancy take him.

“Good morning Ms. Stark, what did you want to see me about?”

“Sir, I wanted to let you know that we have purchased every known natural gas field and any remaining non-mako power station, as you ordered.”

“Very good, Ms. Stark. It is important that we monopolise the remaining fuel sources. Get started on the oil fields”

“Yes sir, I also finalised your donation to the WRO”

“Excellent, you kept it anonymous?”

“Yes sir”

“Good, you are dismissed”

He watched her leave, and for the first time in months he smiled. He was going to bring his company back from the brink, and he would atone for his sins as best he could along the way. His smile broadened when he wondered if Reeve suspected whom his generous benefactor was.

~

Elena was waiting downstairs in the lobby with Rude, wondering what the hell was keeping Reno.

“He should have been here more than an hour ago!” she said to Rude, exasperated

“Elena, we both know that Reno is never on time, why would this morning be any different?”

“Because, he should be on time when he actually has work to do”

Rude didn’t answer, he was already tired with the amount of talking that his new position required. So he just shrugged at Elena, hoping that it would satisfy her.

“I’m going to the bathroom, mind this” she nudged the bag of equipment at her feet before stalking off.

Rude watched her go, and felt a familiar twinge of sadness. He wished he could just tell her how he felt, that he could be as confident in his words as Reno.
But he couldn’t put his feelings for her into words; he would never be able to tell her… and he knew how much she had cared about Tseng, how much his disappearance must be hurting her, so he just loved her from afar…

He was jarred from his thoughts when he heard a familiar cackle; he looked up and saw Reno saunter into the lobby with another man in tow. A man, in SOLDIER uniform.

“Hey Rude! I got our new recruit right here!” Reno called, pulling the other man by the arm. “His name’s Adrian”

Rude looked Adrian over, he was slim but muscular, and about an inch shorter than Reno.

He’ll do, I suppose

He held out a hand to Adrian. “I’m Rude; I am the commanding Turk, welcome aboard”

“Thank you sir”

“Elena has sourced your equipment, she will be back shortly to go through it all with you. Reno will be taking you through basic training, and should also get you fitted for a suit, and he will also help you with any question you may have”

“Yes sir”

“Now, what is your full name?” Rude took out a notebook and pen

“Adrian Frayne”

“Age?”

“Nineteen”

“Previous profession?”

“SOLDIER, Second Class”

“Commanding Officer?”

“SOLDIER, First Class, Serenity Adams”

“Weapon expertise?”

“Assault rifle, sniping, martial arts, handguns, fire materia and shotgun”

“Preferred weapon?”

“Shotgun”

“Very good, Adrian”

“Thank you sir”

“Call me Rude, you already know Reno, and Elena will be here soon”

“Thank you si… Rude”

The three men turned at the sound of a door opening, and watched as Elena approached.

“Glad to see you finally made it here, Reno” she said, shooting the redhead a look, she turned to Adrian and smiled “Nice to meet you, my name is Elena, welcome to the Turks”

“Thank you, Elena. I’m Adrian”

She picked up the bag from the floor, “Lets go into one of the empty offices, and I’ll go through your equipment with you”

They headed for a room on the left hand side of the lobby, leaving Rude and Reno alone.
Reno turned to Rude and smiled.

“So what do you think?”

“You did good, Reno. Where did you find him?”

Reno hesitated and then laughed, “I don’t know exactly where I found him, he was in bed with me when I woke up this morning”

Rude raised an eyebrow and one corner of his mouth curled in a small smile, “You never change, partner. Come on, lets go get some coffee while Elena sorts him out”

~

Adrian was struggling to get his head around all that had happened since last night. He watched as Elena kneeled and pulled all sorts of contraptions out of the bag, his head was spinning.

“Ok, here is your EMR” she said, lifting the metal rod for him to see. “It has three settings. Stun, Incapacitate and Kill. Except for Reno, who has grown quite fond of his, we rarely use these for anything more than crowd control”

She removed a handgun and some boxes of ammunition from the bag, “I’m sure you know how to use these?” He nodded, “Good, here is your phone, pretty self-explanatory. This is your GPS, it comes in handy for finding your way through the ruins of Midgar, we also use it to keep track of one another. Knife, water bottle, potions, ether, and a field medicine kit.” She stood up and cracked her back. “Have you a personal weapon you wish to use?”

“A shotgun, There is one in my barracks with all of my belongings”

“I’ll have to send a team out to retrieve your things, they will be moved to your room upstairs. Your room number is 5 on the tenth floor, Rude’s is 2, Reno’s is 3 and mine is 4. We share a kitchen and living area on the same floor. The only thing else I need from you are some photo’s, for fake ID’s, passports, and your new Shinra employee card. There is a photo booth on the fifth floor, ask Reno to stop off there on your way to training, ok?”

“Yes, thank you”

“No need to thank me, you’re part of the team now” she said smiling. “Go on and find Reno, he’ll probably be in the kitchen on our floor”

Adrian thanked her again, picked up his bag of equipment and left the room for the elevator. Once inside, he pressed the button for the tenth floor and rested his head against the wall.

What a crazy fuckin’ day

The elevator doors opened and he stepped out, he could see an open area at the end of the corridor and headed for it, he figured it must be the kitchen/living area that Elena had mentioned earlier. He found Rude there, drinking coffee, but no Reno.

“Sir…I mean…Rude, have you seen Reno?”

“He went into his room to shower, he should be done soon, why don’t you go put that bag in your room? It’s unlocked and your key is on the dresser inside.”

“Ok, Thank you”

“No problem”

Adrian walked back up the corridor until he found room number 5; he turned the handle and walked inside. It was a medium sized room, bare except for the bed and dresser. He sighed, it was certainly an improvement over the barracks he had spent the last five years in.

The door to his bathroom opened then, making Adrian yelp and nearly jump out of his skin.

“Oh hi Ade! I thought I’d make sure your shower is working, hope I didn’t scare you too much” Reno said, wearing only a towel and a shit-eating grin.

Adrian didn’t know what to say, he just stood there with his mouth hanging open like a fish. Reno chuckled and crossed the room, closing the distance between them and pressed his body against Adrian’s. Reno lowered his lips to the other man’s, gently biting Adrian’s lower lip.

“I have to go get dressed, see you in a few minutes” Reno purred, and then he was gone, slipped out the door leaving Adrian utterly perplexed and horny as hell.

~

Reno stepped out of Adrian’s room and bumped directly into Elena, nearly dropping his towel in the process.

“Reno! What the hell are you doing! Put some clothes on!” she yelled, a fierce blush spread across her face
“Don’t worry, yo, I was just freshening up” he said with a chuckle as he unlocked his door and went inside.

He pulled the towel from around his waist and attacked his hair with it, trying to get the worst of the wet out. He pulled on a clean suit and shirt and went into his bathroom. He brushed his teeth and spiked his hair before tying the longer strands into a ponytail.
He went back into the main room, strapped his EMR to his wrist, his gun to his hip and his knife to his ankle.

He smiled, he felt better than he had in months. Not only had he picked someone with great potential as a Turk, Adrian was also very easy on the eyes. Reno was unable to remember what they had done last night, but he was going to get Adrian alone again tonight and he was going to savour every moment.

~

Rude looked up from his coffee as Elena came into the kitchen, her face red

“You ok, Elena?”

“Yeah, I just nearly got knocked over by a half naked Reno is all” she complained as she poured herself some coffee.

Rude snorted “Why am I not surprised?”

“He’s so irresponsible, I hope none of his attitude rubs off on Adrian. He actually seems like a nice guy”

Rude cleared his throat, hoping against hope that she wasn’t falling for the new guy. Adrian may be into guys, but Gods, that hadn’t stopped Elena from falling for Tseng.

“I hope a lot more than my attitude rubs off on Adrian” Reno leered from the doorway, startling the two other Turks.

“Reno, do you have to be so crude?” Elena sighed

“He wouldn’t be Reno if he wasn’t” Rude said quietly with a small smile

“Exactly, think of how boring your life would be without me, Elena dear” Reno jeered as he entered the room and sat at the table, Elena just rolled her eyes and took another sip of her coffee.

“Where is Adrian anyway? Shouldn’t you be training him, Reno?” Rude asked

Reno gave an exaggerated sigh and stood up “Ok Boss, I’ll go get him and get started. See you both later” he plucked an apple out of the bowl on the table and swaggered out of the room, humming tunelessly to himself as he went

Rude and Elena sat in companionable silence for a while before she spoke up
“So what do you think of Adrian?”

“Seems like a good kid, he was a Second Class SOLDIER until this morning”

“Yeah? There aren’t many who would give up a position like that, even to be a Turk” she narrowed her eyes “Where did Reno find him?”

Rude cleared his throat uncomfortably, but he decided to tell her the truth. “Reno picked him up last night, I don’t know exactly where.”

“Picked him up?” she asked, bewilderment clear on her face. Rude rolled his eyes behind his dark glasses.

“They slept together”

“Oh!” from the look on her face, Rude could tell that her little crush on Adrian had disappeared just as quickly as it had started.
He raised an eyebrow at her; he didn’t know why she was so surprised.

“I hardly think that that is an appropriate way to recruit new members!” she was beginning to sound annoyed

Rude just shrugged. “Reno has his own way of doing things. It worked out for the best, no harm done”

“I suppose” she said, sulking a little. “Just as long as they keep their minds on their work, and not on each other”

~

Reno slammed Adrian up against the wall of the elevator, pulling him into a furious kiss that left him gasping for air. Reno withdrew enough to rest his forehead against Adrian’s

“Reno…” Adrian said, sliding out of the other man’s grasp

“Yeah baby?”

“I need to get off at the fifth floor, Elena needs me to get pictures taken”

“We’ll get you your uniform first, pictures wont look right otherwise”

Reno reached past Adrian, making sure he got as close as possible to the brunette in the process, and pressed the button for the sixth floor. Reno smirked down at the other man, his hand snaking down and cupping the brunette’s arousal through his pants. Adrian gasped and pushed into Reno’s touch. The elevator door opened, Reno straightened up and readjusted his clothes.

“We’ll finish this later, baby, I promise” Reno purred as he stepped out onto the sixth floor and strutted down the corridor.
~

Adrian swallowed thickly, trying to regain his composure; he followed Reno down the hall and into a large storage room. The room was filled to the ceiling with boxes, each one with a label stating the size of the clothing within.

“Go on, Ade, take a look around and see if you can find something that fits” Reno urged

Adrian looked at the formidable stack warily, he started picking through the boxes and when he eventually found a shirt, a jacket, some shoes and a pair of pants that looked like they might fit he turned to Reno expectantly.

“Where should I try them on?” he asked

“Right here is as good a place as any, yo” Reno grinned, “Don’t you think?”

“I guess so” Adrian chuckled and began to pull his SOLDIER uniform off, feeling a little nostalgic as he realised that this would be the last time he ever took it off.
He felt a blush begin to creep into his cheeks as he reached for the buckle of his belt, and was surprised when another hand covered his own, he looked up at Reno shyly.

“I’m going to have to step outside, Ade, ‘coz otherwise I’m going to have to take you, right here on the fuckin’ floor” Reno sighed as he slipped out through the door.

Adrian smiled to himself, a part of him wishing Reno would stay and make good on his promise. He sighed pulling his boots and pants off, he picked up his new uniform and put it on slowly, enjoying how good the expensive suit felt against his skin. The shirt alone was probably more expensive than anything he had ever worn before in his life. He buttoned up his shirt, zipped up his jacket, tied his tie and slipped on the black leather shoes.

“Reno, you can come back in now” he called through the door, and had to take a step back when Reno bounced in, pinning him against the wall yet again.

“Mmm, don’t you clean up nicely?” Reno smirked, leaning in to run his tongue over Adrian’s bottom lip, causing the other man to let out a quiet moan and lean in further. Reno pulled away playfully, relishing the look of delicious disappointment on Adrian’s pretty face.

“Come on, yo, we gotta go get your pictures done”

“Tease” Adrian growled, pretending to be angry

“I’ll make it up to you later, baby” Reno smiled, dropping a suggestive wink

“I’m going to hold you to that”

------------------------------------------
Well, that’s the end of the first chapter, I hope you liked it! I tried to keep everyone in character (except for Rufus, he was rather “gooey” in this chapter, but I promise that he still has some evil left in that pretty blond head!)