Streets of Edge, Wednesday Night (NFB-Distance)

[findingelena]

Elena wasn't nervous. Actually, that was the weird part. She wasn't.

She had left work, showered, and changed into a dress that felt like it was appropriate, but not Trying Too Hard. And then, she and Tseng had gone to dinner, at one of the few nice restaurants Edge had

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[turk_mailman]

"Only twenty?" Tseng almost managed the slightest hint of a smile at that. It hadn't been a bad evening. Nothing had caught on fire, no buildings had toppled down on top of them, they hadn't stumbled into any riots in the streets, and the company had remained pleasant the entire time. "That isn't even enough for a potion."

She knew him entirely too well. Her twenty gil would be well-spent, if he'd been willing to take the bet.

"At any rate, I have my doubts that your secretary would let me get anything finished in the morning if she came in to find me seated at my desk with a night's worth of work sitting beside me."

[findingelena]

"She's not my secretary," Elena laughed. "And I think she'd be happy to see you'd actually taken the night off."

Mrs. Sheffield did not approve of how much Tseng worked. Or how little sleep he got. Or how little he paid attention to proper meals.

"She might have locked up behind us, out of spite," she added.

[turk_mailman]

Mrs. Sheffield clearly didn't believe in things like productivity.

"Which I would expect of her, if she was the last one in the office," Tseng noted. "Fortunately, I do have the keys."

What sort of Director would he be if he didn't have the key to his own office, after all?

[findingelena]

What sort of Turk would he be, if he needed keys to get into his own office, anyway?

"I hope you're not expecting me to go back," Elena said lightly. "It'd be depressing to change back into the suit just to file."

[turk_mailman]

"Your secretary would stage a riot if she were to show up first thing in the morning to find that I had you working overtime, as well," Tseng pointed out.

Because this was all on Mrs. Sheffield's head.

All of it.

[findingelena]

"I can't picture Prim and Proper Mrs. Sheffield staging a riot," Elena laughed. "Although I think she might start frothing at the mouth if I ever kissed you at the office."

Never mind that she hadn't kissed him, at all, ever.

Or that her brain had ran ahead of her mouth and that she was blushing, now, and hoping he didn't spot it.

[turk_mailman]

After a nice (for Edge) evening out to dinner, where she'd managed to behave herself through the course of the meal without overstepping any major boundaries, Tseng was going to be a very gracious date, and he was going to let that slip slide.

"Her end Rude both, I suspect," he offered, instead.

[findingelena]

"Rude would either start filming, or applaud," Elena decided. "Better to avoid it entirely, I think."

Which brought up a rather thorny topic. Office romance, and its complications.

"I didn't tell either of them," she said, hesitantly, "where I was going tonight."

Or, say, who with.

In case he was hoping to keep whatever-this-was strictly between them. She could do that.

[turk_mailman]

"No?" Tseng quirked an eyebrow just slightly, giving her a quick once-over (and appreciating her dress, yes. It was rare to see so much color in Edge. More rare still to see it on somebody who wore it well) before turning his attention back to the road ahead of them. "We wouldn't have had a moment's peace if Rude found out."

Rude would have called Reno. Reno would have made it his personal mission to...

To...

Something. Tseng didn't care that he wasn't on the planet, Reno would have found a way to destroy the evening, he was certain.

[findingelena]

Reno could be an excellent cockblocker. Even when he wasn't necessarily trying to.

There was a good reason she hadn't told anyone else. Several reasons, for that matter.

"I meant, indefinitely," she said, folding her arms behind her back and trying to sound competent. Rational. Reliable. "Not just when and where. They don't ... need to know, if you were hoping ..."

To keep this private? Tseng was not much for letting people in.

[turk_mailman]

Tseng stopped walking, just about then, glancing down at the hand that just a few moments before had been suggesting, perchance, that nothing would be hurt by them holding hands.

They didn't need to know, she'd said. He almost smiled a little at that.

And then, in a moment that he could kick himself for in the morning, in a fit of terrible judgment and making what he was going to swear up and down tomorrow was one of the worst decisions he'd ever made, he took her hand in his own.

[findingelena]

It sent a thrill all the way up her arm and down her spine and everywhere else she could think of. Maybe he was electric. No wonder he didn't like people getting close.

He had stopped, and so she stopped, too. They could stand here for a moment, couldn't they? Her fingers twined through his. Maybe he could let this moment linger.

Maybe he wouldn't run away if she didn't push. She wasn't going to lean in, or try slipping an arm around him. She was going to try very hard not to, at least.

[turk_mailman]

Which Tseng would certainly appreciate, once he was in his own right mind again. Was he out of his mind right now? He must have been. He was standing on the side of the road, holding the hand of one of his employees, who about a year ago had stormed out of his office and away to that island because he'd accused her of being drunk after she'd professed her love for him. There was no end to the words that could be used to describe just how wrong this was.

Which was clearly why he was giving her hand a light squeeze, just then.

"It's been a good evening, Elena."

Because, of course, that was the sort of thing that one was supposed to say while doing something horribly inappropriate.

[findingelena]

"It has," she said, very gently. Any second now, she'd do something wrong, and he'd run off, and she'd realize she should have done something else entirely.

Or maybe she should stop worrying so much.

Attempting to date Tseng was like playing three chess games at once, except half his pieces were invisible.

"Even better than a night spent filing?" she teased.

[turk_mailman]

"Spent in better company, at the very least," he allowed.

He'd leave it up to her discretion to interpret whether he was referring to Mrs. Sheffield or the filing cabinets.

[findingelena]

"So ... you let yourself have a night off, and the world didn't end," Elena said, offering him a warm smile. "Weird, isn't it?"

She was in no hurry to start walking again. The night air was crisp, and his fingers were curled around hers, and they could stand here talking for hours for all she cared.

"Unless I jinxed it, by pointing that out."

.... if she had? If Sephiroth showed up right now? She would set him on fire.