For The Sacred and Profane.
I opted not to go with highlighting past from future scenes. I think all the tenses worked out, but if it's confusing, let me know!
Disclaimer: I niether own nor profit from ffvii or its characters. It's a well known fact, I think, that Reno owns me.
Enjoy.
fire mystic
Reflections
Tifa looked out the window at the tire hanging still in the moonlight.
"What's that for?" Tifa had asked when Reno had brought it home one day and hung it from the sturdy tree branch. Sometimes his logic defied her. He had jumped up to stand on the bottom edge of the tire, holding onto the rope, and bounced up and down, testing his handy-work.
"All kids need a swing, Tifa, and this is so much cooler than a swingset, don't you think?"
She couldn't help but agree with him, but…
"We don't have any kids, Reno."
He smiled warmly at her, knowingly.
"Yet. We don't have any kids yet."
In the thirty nine and a half years since he had hung that tire, he had changed the rope many times, and when their daughter wasn't using it, it wasn't uncommon to see Tifa sitting in the swing, talking and laughing with Reno as he pushed her back and forth, or spun the tire around, or simply stood behind her, holding her against him.
With a sigh, her eyes shifted to a picture sitting on a nearby shelf, a picture of Jade, who had her mother's hair and smile, but her father's sparkling, gem-like eyes and his sense of humor and adventure.
Tifa had been standing in the kitchen when she greeted Reno home from work with the news that he would be a father. He had looked at her for a moment as if he didn't quite believe her, glancing from her face to her belly and back again. He had approached her then, taking her face in his hands, kissing her, softly, reverently, and then dropped to his knees in front of her, pushing her shirt up so he could place a second kiss at the center of her belly. He would place a kiss in that same spot every day for the next eight months, but never before he kissed Tifa first.
Tifa always came first.
Their daughter had been a handful; that was for sure, and worth every minute of it. From the moment Tifa had found out she was pregnant, it had been an adventure. Tifa refused to believe that any mother had ever carried as large or that any baby ever kicked and wriggled as much. She had also discovered what a lie morning sickness was. She didn't have morning sickness. She had round-the-clock sickness. The doctors assured her everything was fine, but she refused to believe them until the baby was born and she could see for herself.
Reno was there every step of the way, dedicating every free minute of the day to Tifa, exhausting himself to make sure she was comfortable. Whatever she needed, he made sure she had it, no matter the time of day, no matter the inconvenience. Together, he had told her. They would do this together. Yes, he knew she was the only one who could carry the baby, but he would do his part.
When the time finally came, however, Reno was nowhere to be found. Off on some mission, it was Yuffie that managed to get Tifa to the hospital while Vincent got Tseng on the phone to track down Reno. While they panicked, Tifa's faith in him remained. Upon entering the hospital, Tifa informed everyone within hearing range that this baby was not coming until her father had arrived, and it seemed to all present that fate was working with Tifa. Reno burst through the doors of the hospital seconds after her declaration, covered in ash and smelling of cordite, and careened through the hospital at a dead run, making it into the delivery room as the labor intensified. Straight to the head of the bed, Reno took both of Tifa's hands in his, leaned over and pressed his cheek to hers, and said, in a voice too low for anyone else to hear, "Love you, Baby. I told you I would be here. Together, Tifa, like I promised."
An hour later, the nurse placed their baby in Tifa's arms. She had turned to present Reno with his new daughter, only to find the seemingly tireless man sound asleep in the chair beside the bed, her hand still gripped tightly in his.
There had been a time Tifa had wondered what kind of father Reno would be, but she quickly learned the doubts she had were groundless. From the way he held Jade and talked to her, from the way he played with her, from the way he laughed with her, it was clear she was precious to him, and one of Tifa's greatest joys in life were the memories of Reno with Jade: How she clung to him when he took her for rides on the motorcycle, or her awe when he took her up in the chopper; how serious Jade had been when Reno had taught her how to defend herself; how fearless Jade was when she was with her father; how they had laughed together when they had a mud fight out in the yard, and how angry Tifa had been when they came in covered in muck and tracked it through the house. They had both stopped short when they caught the livid expression on her face, and promptly burst out into gales of laughter seconds later, and then chased Tifa through the house and made sure she was as muddy as they were; how they would surprise her with breakfast in bed, Reno obviously having done most of the cooking, while Jade wore more ingredients on her clothes than ended up on the plate; how they would 'play Turk', as Tifa liked to call it, out in the yard with water guns, and later paintball guns, and Tifa always had to be the bad guy because Reno could never be caught. How Jade had spent hours screeching and giggling as Reno pushed her back and forth, and round and round on that tire.
The picture on the shelf showed Jade in her wedding gown, standing beside her father, who had brought tears to Tifa's eyes when he walked his daughter down the aisle. Reno had taken Tifa's hand as he sat down, entwining their fingers and, though he kept his eyes on Jade standing with her soon-to-be husband, Tifa could see the tears in his eyes, see his throat work as he swallowed them down.
Afterwards, she had found him leaning against the railing of the balcony of the reception hall, overlooking the water. She had wrapped her arms around him, burying her face against his back.
"Do you think she'll be happy, Tifa?" He had asked.
"I think they love each other as much as we do."
"I don't know if that's possible, but if so, they'll be fine."
He had turned and wrapped her in his embrace, holding her as tight to him as he ever had, pressing his face into the crook of her neck.
"It's you and me again, Lockhart." His lips moved against her skin as he spoke, and his use of her last name, which had become a comfortable endearment between them, warmed her heart.
"Yeah, just you and me, Reno. Whatever will we do now?"
He pulled back, his characteristic mischievous grin in place.
"C'mon, Lockhart. Has it ever been boring between us?"
Boring, Tifa thought, was a word that she had never thought to apply to Reno, not from when she knew him as nothing but an annoying Turk, not from when he had made it known that he was interested in her, leaning over the bar and placing a lingering kiss on her cheek just above the corner of her mouth. She had been startled, to know he was interested, at how gentle he was, at how passionate he was, and at how much she had wanted to turn her head that slightest bit to meet his mouth with her own. Not from their first official date, when he had taken her four-wheeling in the desert under the luminescence of a large full moon. Not from his marriage proposal, when she had looked down into the bag of peanuts he had handed her to feed the elephants at the zoo and found a ring wrapped around one of the peanuts. She had looked up sharply to find him as serious as he had ever been, casually leaning against the fence.
"Marry me, Tifa?"
She held the ring up between them.
"What if I had fed it to the elephants by accident?"
He shrugged in that dismissing way of his.
"Depends. If your answer was no, then my loss, in more ways than one. But if your answer was yes, then it would have been kinda cute and funny watching you fishing around for that ring in that elephant pen."
Stamping her foot at him, she crossed her arms over her breasts and pouted prettily.
"So? Is that a yes or a no?"
She couldn't stop the smile from taking over the pout and held out the ring for him to place on her finger.
"Yes, of course. Was there ever any doubt?"
The picture of her daughter reminded her of her own wedding, not nearly the affair Jade's had been, but exactly what Tifa had wanted; a small, simple ceremony to simply make it official. At the time, there had remained hard feelings on both sides about the two of them being together, and she had no desire to muck through the mess to figure out how to create a happy ceremony for everyone, so she decided to worry about the only two people's happiness that mattered.
Afterwards, they disappeared for their honeymoon, leaving word with only a few choice people. Tifa was astounded at the private island Reno brought her to, a bonus of working for Shinra all those years, and the two weeks they spent there were beyond anything she could have imagined. With small trips to the mainland for days and evenings out, they had spent most of their time on the island, completely lost in each other. Tifa would never forget how completely attentive Reno was, how he made love to her the first night as if he had never touched her before, tender and considerate, passionate and intense, as if it were their first time together and he was committing every nuance to memory; how, as Tifa came down from the euphoria, she wondered how long that passion would last.
Tifa's face flushed in the darkness at the memory, a happy, pleased smile lifting her lips. She still had yet to find an answer to that question.
She turned, glancing over their bedroom. Despite it being cast in shadow, Tifa knew what every shadow hid, knew every part of this house inside out. It had been a wedding present of sorts. It had been their first stop upon returning from their honeymoon. Reno had told her they had a stop to make, and when they got there, had opened the door and ushered her into the house. Nodding into the interior, he had said:
"What do you think?"
"What do you mean?"
"If you like it, it's ours. If not, I'll look for something else."
Tifa wandered for over an hour, walking through each room slowly, opening closets and cabinets, examining every niche, circling the property. Reno had followed at a distance, apparently doing the same, but it seemed he had chosen the house with her in mind. It was perfect, with a large backyard backed by woods. After making a final loop around the kitchen, she had turned to Reno, who did nothing more than raise an eyebrow.
"It's big."
"Not too big. And if we have children…" He left the sentence hanging with a shrug. It was the first indication that he had thought of children.
"It's perfect."
"Then it's ours."
It had taken them no more than a week to move in, but they had spent years working on the house. Though there was nothing wrong, Tifa had definite ideas about what she wanted in a home and Reno had spent hours helping her make her dreams into reality. She had wonderful memories of the remodeling, which always seemed to end up with Reno covered in something; debris from tearing down a wall here, sawdust from replacing the kitchen cabinets. And then there was the week he spent trying to get the yellow paint completely off his skin and out of his hair; Tifa, at the point of frustration with the color, had decided, after days of trying to make it work, that yellow might not be her color of choice after all, and in her elation at having made the decision, knocked the three quarters of a gallon off the ladder onto Reno's head. She had clamped a hand over her mouth in shock, then in hysterical laughter, and had squealed as Reno gave her a bear hug, making sure she would have her share of clean-up as well.
Although they missed Jade in the house, Reno was proven correct; it would never get boring. Their time became their own again after Jade's wedding, and Tifa found amazing joy in simple things like being able to curl up with Reno on the couch and watch a movie or take a nap, or open that new can of paint and refresh a room. She had found over the years that Reno loved to play games of all kinds, although he often had his own sets of rules for them, most involving the eventual removal of clothing.
They hadn't grown old together. They had lived together. They had loved together, shared together, and had wonderful fun together. And on nights like this, when Tifa woke and couldn't seem to get back to sleep, and found herself caught up in her thoughts, she was reminded of how they had found an easy, comfortable place with each other, and how peaceful it truly was.
"You look like you're about to cry, Baby." His voice was the softest whisper in the dark. "What are you thinking about?" It was this voice that soothed her, reassured her, voiced words of love and endearment, and, to this day, groaned her name in the throes of passion.
Tifa was once again looking out the window at the tire swing.
"I was thinking about that old swing."
There was a faint rustling sound as Reno pushed the bed covers away and came to stand behind her, pulling her into his arms, resting his head on her shoulder so he could see the object of her thoughts.
"What about it?"
"I…How have we stayed so happy together, Reno? You are happy, aren't you?"
He snuggled against her, kissed her neck, her ear, then turned her and met her gaze, holding her head between her palms as he searched her eyes. Then he kissed her, as he had the very first time, on her cheek, just above the corner of her mouth, letting his lips linger to warm her skin.
"It's because we love each other, Lockhart. It's because of how you make me feel, and it's because I never forget, not for a split second, how much you mean to me."
"How do I make you feel?" Strange, in all their time together, she had never asked.
He once again glanced out the window behind her, his eyes twinkling in the moonlight as he smiled and took her hand to lead her from the room.
"Like going for a swing."