Disclaimer: Final Fantasy does not belong to me...however much I may like it to. I own no characters, places etc. etc. so please don't sue me! I'm a nice person :)

Author's Note: Fifth-Eighth fanfic...I'm a healthy...ish way through my RufusxTifa fic so I thought I'd make a start on the RenoxTifa chaptered fic...I've made a whole plan for this, plus I've kinda already written half the ending ;)...PLEASE review as I really enjoy reading your views and they inspire me to get better! It would make me very very happy! Anyway stop reading this and get on with reading the fic! Hope you enjoy! :)

Chapter One: Wasteland Memories

Reno ran a nimble hand through his flame red spikes, letting out a bored sigh as he did so, and pushing his back further into the seat, which he had managed over his time as pilot, to make incredibly comfy, the fabric now able to mould itself to his slender shape.

The space inside the helicopter was, as always, deathly quiet, the air filled with a heavy silence that the red head found rather unsettling, as the sound of the propellers outside was deafening, yet the aircraft's walls seemed to block it out completely, making him feel strangely isolated.

Though he would never complain of course, after all he got to fly a helicopter, and that was something way too cool to pass up on the grounds of the interior feeling a little weird.

The red head tilted the controls slightly to the left, letting the aircraft drift further across and over their desolate destination, which this time just happened to be a stretch of parched, desert like wasteland, the lack of water in the area forcing the ground to become a hard, sandy yellow, with deep black cracks like veins covering the surface, almost as if it had been infected with some horrible, unknown disease.

Their mission was simple, scan the area thoroughly, take note of anything they found, and give a full report back to Tseng, who would, in turn, report back to the President.

Reno had no idea what his superiors were planning and he had no intention questioning them, he'd learned not to pry when it came to matters involving Shinra, especially matters that they obviously wanted to be kept private. It also felt a hell of a lot safer not to be in the know, because, after all, people who knew to much, people who's brains were just full of tasty nuggets of highly secretive information, tended to get kidnapped, which always seemed to lead to the rather unpleasant business of torture, and like any other sound person, Reno wasn't exactly a big fan of the whole getting tortured lark.

Though in hindsight, there had definitely been a stunning decrease in the number of Shinra haters since the terrible events that had occurred over the last few years; Sephiroth, Meteor, Geostigma, they all had an impressive impact on the population, but more so on the company.

Even Rufus, whom had before seemed as though he'd make an even more ominous President than his father, had now made a pledge to the planet, not publicly of course, but it was known throughout the remaining members of the company that their purpose, their objective, had altered somewhat, and Reno was surprised at how pleased he felt at this change.

When he first started working as a Turk, he honestly hadn't cared about the actions he carried out; he could kill a man at short range and not feel a thing, he pressed buttons and gave orders that had subsequently destroyed the lively hoods of thousands of innocent people, he hadn't enjoyed it, but then again he hadn't felt remorse either, it was just his job, he did the deed and got paid, that was it.

But lately something had changed, something had made regrets, regrets that had previously laid buried, deep behind layers of self created psychosis, surface and that forced him to face all the things he had done in the name of Shinra.

When ever he attempted to ask himself as to what exactly might caused this sudden change of heart, he always came back to the same, most likely candidate; Tifa Lockhart.

It had all started with that bar of hers, the rebuilt 'Seventh Heaven', located only a few streets away from his apartment, thus making it the perfect watering hole, plus he was banned from most of the others.

The first time he went there, the brunette had told him, ever so politely, that he wasn't welcome and that it would be in his best interests to 'piss off', though after a persistent run of confident attempts by the red head (to which he mostly received rather blunt answers in the form of really quite painful punches from the bartender), he finally got his way, at least to some extent.

He would come once a week and always as late as possible, after all, a lot of Tifa's customers didn't take kindly to Turks, and this dislike seemed to increase with the infusion of alcohol into their systems.

Reno didn't mind so much, after all he never finished work that early, and he'd always been a late drinker, plus the fewer customers there were, the more he got the brunette to himself.

Of course he tried it on with her, countless times in fact, though he knew full well she wasn't the type to give in to such easy charms that always worked so effortlessly on the other women littering the bars of Edge.

She didn't seem to mind the cheesy remarks or desperately cringe worthy lines, and instead seemed to accept them as part of the red head's quirky personality, even stating once, her belief, that he would probably act in the same way towards his own mother in-law, if he ever got one that is.

Soon the pair were talking, the red head enjoying the conversational wit she produced with such ease, and the brunette enjoying the warming company he gave her, especially at the darkened hour in which he always arrived; it seemed to Reno that he brought her a sort of assurance, a safeness, she'd even made the odd remark or passing comment about how he had somewhat become her late-night protector, comments which he was always quick to pounce upon.

Before he knew it he found himself holding a deep respect for the young woman, admiring the way she could handle herself, impressed at her ability to keep such a disfunctional family unite together, and he couldn't help but admit that she was incredibly talented when it came to drink making.

These bar meetings and casual conversations went on for months, until one night, quite unexpectedly he found himself agreeing to go down to the passing fair, which had rooted itself to the mid-summer common for the following three days.

He had been assured, by her, of course, that this was not a date, though in hindsight he had never thought of it like that. When she'd asked him, it didn't feel uncomfortable or intense like women usually seem to make such situations feel, but instead it felt natural, and easy, as though they had been doing it all their lives.

It was strange, and it surprised him, after so many years of life he had rarely been able to actually make many female friends, or keep them for that matter, though with her it felt shockingly different, it felt like it could last.

Over a year pasted and their friendship seemed to remain on the same level, each giving the other a light relief from the larger, more difficult chunks of their lives.

When the time came for Marlene and Denzel, who had become almost like a brotherly figure, to finally go back with Barrett, their departure had a deep affect on the brunette's life, an effect which for better or worse changed her.

To the red head she seemed to grow more vulnerable, more needy, more open, these things which she'd kept so private before, only allowing that side of her to be seen by the children and the children alone, suddenly came out with an almost desperate ease.

Reno would admit that sometimes she was hard to handle in those situations, but it was also refreshing, and he learnt from it, even finding himself being influenced, allowing his own guards to be lowered, something that he'd never confess in front of his fellow Turks.

And then Cloud disappeared, sure he had technically never been around for more than a few minutes a week anyway, but then one week he didn't show, then another and another and soon a month had passed, leaving the brunette in a frantic panic over his safety and whereabouts, and subsequently leaving the red head to look after her.

And that was that, in the blink of an eye the pair had become inseparable, well not inseparable in the literal sense, but their relationship had definitely formed a stronger bond that neither had expected, until it was just there.

This friendship was exactly what had seemingly made the red head so delighted at the prospect of change at Shinra, the possibility that, for once, he might actually be seen as 'the good guy', that he might finally have the chance to make up for all those things he did, things that he knew had affected Tifa so greatly, plus he couldn't deny the strong urge he had to impress her, and the whole, 'saving the plant in style' thing would surely fill that slot nicely.

Looking over the bleak plane of land, Reno let out a sigh and turned to his equally quiet partner, ''Yo Rude, you getting anything?''

The bald Turk simply shook his head, and turned back to the scanner equipment, located on the helicopter's control pad, taking full advantage of the situation to put in place his trademark silence.

After a few more moments of deathly quiet, the red head turned again to Rude, with some hope of engaging him in conversation, ''Do you think Elena or Tseng have picked anything up?''

Again the bald Turk shrugged ever so slightly, taking no effort in the gesture, his gaze seemingly still fixed upon the scanner, though the red head could never be sure of the exact direction in which his partner was looking through those dark shades he insisted on wearing.

''You ever thought about investing in some vocal chords?'' The red head smirked with a somewhat proud amusement at his own remark, to which Rude responded by raising a solitary eyebrow, perching it just above the top rim of his shades, confident that his action was clearly visible.

A long silence proceeded and Reno began to feel drained, the engaging energies that conversation brought about in him, seemingly unable to be used, thus a sort of heavy tiredness was finding its way into him and he soon found himself slightly worried that very soon he might drop off, causing the aircraft to plummet to the ground. It was that thought alone that focused him into keeping himself awake.

He was quite relieved when he finally heard some sort of sound escape his partner's lips in the form of a deep grunt, which was proceeded by something the red head had been longing to hear from the moment they'd finished the second sweep of the wasteland, ''There's nothing out here, I think we'd best head back.''

There was a sudden gasp, as Reno took a quick inhalation, preparing himself for his trademark swerve and dip, a move that he knew his bald partner didn't like, but he on the other hand found it strangely exhilarating.

The only feeling he could compare it to was that of when he was a child, riding in the car, and whenever the vehicle went over a small bump or slope, his tummy would give a funny sort of flip, making him feel as though he was on a roller-coaster and each rise and fall was like bobbing over a great mountain.

It gave him a joyful flash of nostalgia, reminding him of that little moment that had occurred so many times in his childhood, but which he no longer seemed able to duplicate.

Once he had performed his little trick, and apologised jokingly to Rude, who had now turned a rather peculiar shade, he pointed the helicopter in the direction of Edge, willing it to return to his home as fast as its blades would allow.

A/N= You know when I was doing my research (Always like to check I'm not doing a similar plot line to someone else...plus I like to see what other people have done!) I couldn't actually find many RenoxTifa chaptered fics out there, which surprised me!

You could say that this is a sort of prologue as there's not much action here, or dialogue for that matter, but I wanted to get a grounding for the character and give a bit of back story, so when I write the next chapter you won't get to confused and you'll have a feel for the situations in which story is taking place.

I've also decided to make this fic rather Reno centric, so we'll be seeing things more from his point of view and from his world, basically because it just happened to come out that way, but mostly because it felt right...plus Reno made me...he's a cheeky scamp...I mean he's even managed to weedle his way into being a pretty big character in my RufusxTifa fic...Tsst...But I don't mind ;)

Oh and the next chapter should be out in a few days, maybe two chapters if you're lucky!