Office Talk

Elena was currently stuck at the Turks' office filing papers with Reno, who wasn't bothering to actually do anything more than sit around and be annoying. Rude was in Junon with Rufus and Tseng was having some sort of "very important" meeting with Reeve.

Elena hated being stuck with Reno, who was currently trying his hardest to drive her up the wall by any means necessary. At first he teased her. And when that didn't annoy her enough he began to make filthy gossip. Reno was currently trying to disgust her with a story he had overheard yesterday concerning a young secretary getting a venereal disease. Elena decided it was best to ignore him. But this only made Reno worse. When he didn't get the desired reaction out of Elena, Reno began to get snippy with her, which finally managed to drive her over the edge.

"Shut up already!" Elena screamed. "Leave me alone, get off your ass and actually do some paper work for once you lazy bastard!"

"Make me!" Reno yelled back, sticking out his tongue.

"Oh my god, what are you? 12?"

"Inches?" Reno replied slyly, and then added with a grin, "Why yes I am. How did you know? Oh Elena, have you been peeping me in the shower room? I knew you wanted me but I didn't realise it was this bad. Your place or mine, babe?"

Elena was preparing to be arrested for murder when Tseng walked in, casually shutting the door of the outer office behind him. He shot a glance at Reno, who promptly shut his mouth.

"Elena," Tseng began. "May I see you in my office, please?"

"Umm... Yes, of course...," Elena answered sheepishly, following Tseng into his office. She glared back at Reno who was once again sticking out his tongue while simultaneously flipping her off. She ignored him.

"Sit down please," Tseng said dryly, motioning to the chair in front of his desk.

Elena settled into the chair rather nervously. She wanted to know why Tseng wanted to see her but was afraid to ask. Was he mad at her? Did he think that she was provoking Reno in order to make trouble?

Tseng sat down soon after her, and as if reading her mind said, "Don't worry. You aren't in any trouble."

Elena breathed a sigh of relief, but before she could open her mouth Tseng began to speak again.

"I heard the yelling out in the hall. Reno can do that to people. Irritate them to the point of no return. I'd bet anything that you wanted to strangle him right then and there. Am I right?"

"Umm... It crossed my mind." She replied nervously.

"Then you did the right thing. If you keep ignoring Reno it just makes him worse. You've got to let yourself break down a little and then he'll let up. Once he gets the desired rise out of you he won't progress much further. He doesn't really mean the things he says so don't take too much offense. Trust me, I speak from experience."

For about thirty seconds there was nothing but silence and the sound of Tseng rifling through a desk drawer and pulling out a small stack of papers. Elena figured that her boss was done with her for the moment and began to get up from her chair. Tseng quickly looked up at her, apparently somewhat confused.

"Where are you going, Elena?" He asked. "Sit down please, I didn't dismiss you."
Elena did as Tseng told her to and sat back down. Tseng then took an expensive looking metal pen out of the same drawer that the papers came from and began to fill out the top paper slowly, pausing for a second as if he were in deep thought before he resumed writing again.

After about three minutes of writing, Elena was beginning to get nervous. What was going on? While she liked being alone with Tseng in his office, it baffled her as to why he was keeping her here when he apparently had no further use for her at the moment. Normally, Tseng was a little cold to her, but now he was just being ignorant after going through the trouble of giving her advice.

Finally Tseng looked up at her and broke the silence. "This pen, it cost 25 gil. You'd think that might be a bit much I suppose... But it's a good pen. It's metal so it doesn't break. It's also refillable."

"Oh that's nice," Elena answered, not sure what she should be saying. "Do you collect pens, Tseng?"

"No. No I don't," Tseng answered. "I just like the quality."

Elena nodded, again not knowing what to say. Tseng then reached over the desk, holding the pen out to her. "Here, you can have it. Go ahead, take it."

Bewildered, Elena took the pen from him, replying with a "Thank you."

You're welcome, Elena, "Tseng said rather kindly as he reached back into the drawer and pulled out a similar pen with a slightly different design. He then resumed writing.

After about two minutes passed Elena was once again getting very nervous. She had no idea what was going on but she figured she shouldn't even bother with trying to get up again. Tseng would probably just tell her to sit back down anyway.

Suddenly he looked up at Elena again and she thought she saw a slight smile touch his face for a moment. Then he spoke once more.

"If you like this pen better you can have it instead,"

"Umm it's ok," Elena said. "This pen is just fine."

"Ok then," Tseng said. "Glad you like it"
And with that he went back to writing.

Elena couldn't take it anymore. What was Tseng's deal anyway? She was beginning to wish she was back out there with Reno. At least he was straight forward with his torment and didn't play strange mind games with her.

Finally, she gathered the courage to speak up. " Tseng...?"

"Yes?" His voice seemed detached and he didn't look up from his paperwork this time.

"If you have no further use for me, I think I'd like to go now. Please."

"Why?" Tseng asked, finally looking up. "You're free from Reno in here are you not? I thought you liked hanging around me. Was I wrong to assume that you did?"

"No! It's not that at all. It's just that well... You're making me very nervous!" Elena had blurted the last part out so fast that she covered her mouth with her pen free hand, surprised at what she had said.

Tseng looked at her for a moment and spoke. "I'm.... Sorry."

"Tseng..."

"It's alright, Elena." Tseng replied. "It's my fault. I'm terrible at making small talk so I just kept you here while I tried to think of things to say. That's why I gave you the pen. I didn't know what else to do. Let's have a fresh start tomorrow, alright. We could have coffee or something."

"I'd like that", Elena said, smiling. She no longer felt nervous.

"You're dismissed now," Tseng said, letting the smile touch his face longer this time. "Enjoy the pen, Elena. Try not to stab Reno to death with it."

"I can only try so hard," Elena laughed as she exited Tseng's office.

Reno had apparently been listening against the door and was shooting her weird and annoying looks in an attempt to irritate her further. Elena stuck her tongue out at him accordingly and brandished her new pen. She had paperwork to do.

~Fin~

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