Disclaimer : I do not own FFVII, Crisis Core, Advent Children, or any of the characters that you recognise. As much as I love these guys, they belong to those other guys.

AN : This little one shot is based on my previous fic Off The Path. I guess you don't really need to read that to read this (or do you? Does it make sense on its own?) but if you're wondering what's going on, give OtP a read! Rating is for language and sexual suggestion but nothing hardcore in here :) If you guys reckon the rating needs to go up though, let me know! I suck at judging this stuff

Three months.

Without sex.

Reno wasn't sure he'd gone that long since losing his virginity. Even in particularly dry spells, he had fallen back on various booty calls. Women (and one guy) who assured him that they would make time for him any time he needed to 'de-stress' from work pressures. Even when he'd left Edge and traveled, there was always someone in a bar who would satisfy his needs.

I've never slept with a redhead before.

Are those tattoos? Can I touch them?

You've got a piercing WHERE? I don't believe you, show me it. In private.

He'd heard them all. And he was happy to 'educate' the people of Gaia in the ways of Reno. But that was before he'd run into her. That fateful day in the snow when he decided that it wasn't really procrastination if he was doing something helpful. But he hadn't know that it would be her. And he hadn't known she would end up staying in his home. And he definitely didn't know that she would end up having a rather profound effect on him.

When he'd first thought about it, he'd blamed the whisky. The alcohol had obviously softened him up and given him hazy feelings that went beyond lust. But then he remembered that he hadn't been drinking whisky past that first night.

Then he'd blamed scars. His scar, her scar. Both of them. That's why she'd first touched him somewhat tenderly and set his blood on fire with her cool, calloused yet still soft hands. But then again, they hadn't slept together after that in any other sense but actually sleeping.

The tattoo. He'd blamed her tattoo. That ridiculously sexy feminine tattoo in a ridiculous sexy feminine place. That had grabbed his attention, and held on tight. But when he'd seen it first, it had been innocent. Well, on her part. On his part it had been a true test of his willpower and resulted in the very small conscience he had making a rare appearance.

He tried blaming a lot of things. The snow, the drink, the fact that she was only going to be with him for a day or two, the fact that it would be a very impressive notch on his bedpost to bed not only one of the Saviours of the Planet but an old enemy. But in fact it had really been her laugh, her eyes, her smile, her surprisingly wicked sense of humour, the look she got on her face when she got flustered. The way she challenged him, how good she looked in his clothes. And the fact she was an amazing fuck didn't hurt either. That was why Tifa Lockhart had firmly gotten under Reno's skin. It wasn't like he hadn't thought about his previous lovers in passing before. Maybe a seat in a bar which reminded him of the time he'd picked up a fellow redhead. Maybe a graphic flashback during a lull in the middle of the working day. Those had been his favourite, because Rude or Elena or, if he was lucky, Tseng would ask him what he was staring into space at and he would tell them obligingly. In detail. Usually to an eye roll and a "Dude. Seriously?" (Rude), a cry of disgust and blush ('Lena) or a raised eyebrow (Tseng). But this was different. He didn't just think of the times they'd had sex, although those had been very pleasant day dreams. Or regular night dreams. Or thoughts during a longer-than-usual shower. He also thought of them laughing, which had been a lot. Reno hadn't realised just how much they'd laughed together (or him at her expense) until she was gone. He ended up actually moping a bit when he'd finally gotten home after their last night together in the hotel room. Rude had noticed right away. Reno thought back to when he'd barely taken two steps in his front door.

"What's wrong?"

"Whadda ya mean what's wrong? I didn't say anythin'. I'm just in the door!"

"..."

"I'm fine, man. I just have a headache from too much booze. Those Iced Teas are killer, yo."

"..."

"What? That's all that's wrong. I'm tired."

"..."

"Rude, I'm fuckin' serious, stop that!"

"Fine."

"S'better." Reno had snorted and flung himself onto the couch beside the bald Turk. Rude had stared at the redhead from behind his shades but Reno had pointedly looked in the other direction. Later that night, after a few too many beers, Rude had tried again to get Reno to admit that he was sulking, but he was in full on denial by this point. Each night when Reno came home from work, Rude would be waiting with a cooked meal. It was the deal that Reno would let Rude stay with him every time he visited, and Rude would cook so he didn't have to deal with the ready meals that were piled in Reno's freezer. Usually, conversation flowed easily between the two old partners as they ate, but Rude noticed Reno was just pushing food around his plate as opposed to his usual of shoving the food down his throat at such a speed there was no way he could have tasted anything. They made small talk, but Rude knew his partner inside out and wanted to find out exactly what was wrong, despite having a pretty good idea what was up. However, it wasn't until they were sharing a few beers at the weekend that Rude tested the waters again.

"So you cheered up any?"

"Eh?" Reno looked questioningly at his ex-partner. Rude drained the rest of his beer and stood up to head to the fridge. He brought back another two drinks and sat back down.

"You heard me. You aren't moping quite as much."

"I ain't mopin'!" Reno whined, taking the beers from Rude and opening then with one of the empties. Rude raised an eyebrow as he took the now open bottle.

"Where'd you learn that?" He questioned. He saw Reno wince a little.

"Tifa. We swapped a couple of party tricks."

"Let me guess. The tongue clover thing."

"Yep. And the Gil ring. Swapped that one for an origami frog that jumps. Lemme show you." Reno scanned his table for something to fold and froze momentarily. There was a beer label sat beside his empty bottles, perfectly peeled. He shook it off, unsure when he'd actually removed said label, and started folding it. Rude watched him for a bit.

"Since when did you peel beer labels off? Dry spell?"

"Eh. Fuck knows. But lookit!" Reno proudly held up the little paper frog. It was a bit squished, and it flopped more than jumped, but it made him smile either way. Rude took it out his hand and examined the little origami creature.

"So you spent a few days swapping party tricks and picking up weird beer habits. That all?" Rude turned back to his friend. Reno squirmed slightly. Then Rude took off his sunglasses and really looked at him. Reno squirmed a lot more.

"We did...stuff."

"You did 'stuff'? What are you, 12?"

"Why you care so much anyway? Still harbourin' that crush and feelin' a little jealous?" Reno attempted to sneer. He knew Rude didn't feel like that about Tifa anymore, or him going there with her would never have happened out of respect for his buddy. But he needed to take the focus off himself.

It didn't work.

"Dude, you know I've been with Karisa for almost six months now. No I do not still have a crush on Tifa. But you clearly do. Usually you're more than eager to share juicy details about your conquests. I was just curious what's different this time."

"Nothin' is different! You wanna know details, how about the fact that her cu-"

"Reno, no. Seriously. Don't." Rude help up a hand, silencing Reno's crude tirade before it started. "Forget I asked."

"Fine. But she's got a tattoo." Reno said with a nonchalant shrug. Rude's eyebrow raised and Reno knew he had his attention. Rude was almost as big a gossip as he was. Most of the Turks were, partly due to years of having to listen to others gossip to pick up tidbits of information that may come in useful one day. Remembering this, he added. "But you can't tell anybody." Rude shrugged in agreement and they both drank their drinks.

"A tattoo, huh? Didn't think she was the type to get something done."

"Yeah. It's a biggy, too." The grin returned to Reno's face as he pointed to himself, demonstrating where the tattoo started and ended. Rude's eyebrows lifted again.

"Whoa. And she showed you it willingly?"

"You suggestin' I tricked her?"

"Not suggesting, saying outright." Rude grinned. Reno snorted and took a drink of his beer.

"Actually, she slapped me when I asked to see it. But she ended up wasted and got caught in her top and I had to help so I saw it for the first time. The second time, it was deliberate though." Reno's grin turned slightly wicked at the memory, the urge to tell Rude what had happened on the very table in front of them. He decided against it. For now, anyway.

"She got caught in her top? What..." Rude blinked a few times, not that Reno could see him doing so. Reno's grin spread again.

"Whisky. She ended up wasted. Afterwards I gave her some stuff to change into and she needed help. So I helped. Perfect gentleman."

"I doubt that."

"I was! Sure, it was after some kissin', but from the moment she got super drunk and undressed I kept my hands to myself. You know how I feel about guys takin' advantage of women." Reno growled a little as he took another drink. Rude gave a single nod and mirrored his ex-partner, taking a long swig of beer.

"That's true. So this girl took her clothes off in front of you, and you didn't try to sleep with her?"

"Well, we slept together that night, but not like that. Just shared the bed." Reno shrugged. He yelped as Rude suddenly leaned over and grabbed his head with both hands after setting his beer down, lowering his glasses to stare into the redhead's eyes up close. "Rude, man, what the fuck are you doin'?"

"Who are you and what have you done with Reno?"

"Ha ha, very fuckin' funny, lemme go!" Reno flailed his arms and pulled back from Rude, who was still staring at him like there was something wrong with him. "I still fucked her, didn't I?"

"Eventually, maybe. But you guys shared a bed after you'd seen her mostly naked and you didn't turn the charm on like I know you can? That's different."

"Aw c'mon man, gimme a break."

"I never said it was bad. Just different." Rude shrugged slightly and picked his beer back up. Reno huffed and got up, his cheeks a little pink.

"If I'm dealin' with this shit tonight, beer ain't gonna cut it." The redhead mumbled as he headed to the kitchen and returned with a bottle of whisky and two glasses. Rude lifted an eyebrow as Reno opened the bottle and poured them both a drink and handed him one of the glasses. Reno clinked his glass off Rude's before almost downing the lot. Rude took a drink as Reno filled his glass again.

"Talisker Skye? Still?"

"You know I love this stuff." Reno gave him a lopsided grin as he lounged back against the couch, one arm outstretched along the headrests. Rude leaned back and lifted his glass, looking at the amber liquid.

"You like her, don't you?"

"Oh for... dude, seriously. You're ruining my Saturday night." Reno shot the other man a glare, which was met with a nonchalant shrug.

"I'm just calling it like I see it, bro. You know I've seen you work your way through the entire ShinRa secretarial pool with not a second date in sight, along with half the locals of most towns we've been to-"

"You're exaggerating."

"Not by much. Regardless, you know what I mean. This is different. Something happened with Tifa and you can't get her out of your head. You can try and deny it and hide, but you know I know you, may not want to admit it to yourself, but she changed you in the short time she was here. And that's nothing to be ashamed off. It's actually about time someone got under your skin a little."

"Thanks, partner. Glad you've been rooting for me to experience misery."

"That's not what I meant and you know it. You'll get over it, I know, but it's nice to see you're still actually capable of falling for someone."

"What, you think I'm in love with her after one weekend? Fuck sake Rude, gimme a break, that's ridiculous." Reno was starting to growl now. "Can we just leave it and talk about something else? Yer makin' the whisky taste bad."

Rude nodded one and raised his glass to his lips. The subject was dropped and the evening continued as it usually did when they caught up. Reno got insanely drunk and Rude had to put him to bed.

When Rude returned for another visit two months later, he noticed Reno was still out of sorts. He would have been worried if he hadn't known what Reno himself was in denial about.

He'd popped by Seventh Heaven a few times to relax after a shift with Elena and noticed Tifa had started stocking a certain whisky that she'd never had in before. Whenever they walked in, Tifa always greeted them warmly and they even had a regular table. However, Rude noticed she always looked past him and Elena when they walked in too, as if she was looking for a possibly third member of their party. And he doubted she was seeing it Tseng had joined them. But when she caught Rude looking at her, she always plastered a ridiculously large smile on her face. A smile that was clearly trying to hide a little bit of dashed hope. So when he walked into Reno's small cabin to find the redhead smoking a cigarette, he knew what was going on even if the two of them didn't.

"I thought you quit."

"I thought you weren't due to visit for another month." Reno instantly shot back without even giving the bald Turk a glance, tilting his head back against the couch and opening his mouth to let smoke drift lazily from between his lips. Rude went to the kitchen and came back with two beers. He opened them against the table and handed one to Reno.

"Tseng wants you back."

"I told him already that-"

"It's been two years."

"...I'm still a risk."

"How long?"

"About two months since the last nightmare. Nine since the last night terror."

"Two months without anything?"

"Yeah."

"That's... That's really good."

"Yeah. Kinda fuckin' relieved myself, yo."

"Any particular reason they stopped?" Rude questioned as he took a look drink of his beer, wondering how Reno would reply. He saw the redhead falter before he also took a long drink. He shrugged and stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray on the table. Rude noted that it was almost full.

"Hell if I know."

"You sure?"

"Course I'm fuckin' sure. What you gettin' at?"

"She started selling Talisker Skye." Rude went for a total subject change that wasn't really a subject change, hoping to throw his partner off. Judging by the way Reno froze, it worked. Reno quickly regained his composure, but Rude had seen him falter. The redhead slouched, attempting to look relaxed.

"Who has?"

"Tifa." If he was going to play dumb, Rude was going to treat him as such. He could have sworn he saw a smile playing at the edge of Reno's mouth as he took a long drink of his beer.

"Lucky for you. Saves you having to drink that usual shit."

"It'll give you something to drink too. Come back." Rude said simply. Reno sighed deeply and looked down at the beer in his lap, picking at the label edges.

"I do wanna...but..."

"Do it. You have more reasons for than against. Especially now."

"What's that s'posed ta mean?"

"Reno..." Rude gave an exasperated sigh. The redhead could be the most stubborn person he had even met. He didn't know why the denial was continuing. He gave Reno a sideways glance and saw he was staring at his beer which he had cradled in his lap, his thumb running over the label.

"What if I go off the rails again? What if it all starts all over and I hurt you or Elena." Or Tifa. He nearly said it. But he managed to catch himself before he did.

"You won't. You won't hurt me or Elena. Or anyone else." Rude added. Reno looked up at him as Rude laid a hand on his shoulder. "Come back, Reno. I miss you. We all do. She does, too." Rude trailed off. He saw Reno's shoulders slump slightly.

"Fine." The redhead sighed again. "I'll come back. Be it on your head though. I want my own apartment, just in case."

"Tseng thought you would. You're just a block away from me. He managed to convince Rufus to give you a furnished place too. And a raise."

"He was sure I was coming back this time, eh?"

"You know the boss." Rude smiled slightly and Reno snorted.

"Thank fuck. I'm bored as fuck of travelling."

Reno slipped back into life as a Turk easily. It was like he'd never been gone, although two years had passed. There was some things you just didn't forget. It was who he was, and he didn't realise just how much he'd missed it until he was back. Rufus had insisted on testing him though, and keeping him out of the field for a month. Reno had to have a medical as well as tests on his marksmanship to make sure he hadn't gotten sloppy. He hadn't. The doctor that carried out his medical insisted on taking daily blood samples for two weeks before he deemed Reno fit for field work. He knew they were keeping an eye on the Mako levels in his blood while he was back near Midgar. Nothing changed, and Reno got back to work.

It was different than before. It was more about providing security, being a show of strength. Reno didn't need to pull his gun as often, and his EMR stayed attached to his hip more often than not. He kinda missed a bit of the excitement, but not having to keep an eye over his shoulder quite so often was a nice change of pace. He still had to pay attention though. Still had to be one step ahead. The idea of ShinRa having any sort of power again still scared some people, though Rufus spent a lot of time talking to people and assuring people he had changed and Mako energy was not an option for the future. With Reeve's help, the ShinRa name was starting to regain some credibility, and though the Turks were still feared, it was different.

The first night he had been walking home with Rude after his medical, they had passed Seventh Heaven. Reno did his best not to look in the direction of the bar, but his eyes took everything in. He couldn't see past the door but he saw two kids, one of them Barret's girl, sweeping out front and watering the flowers in the hanging basket outside. Every time he walked past, he saw either Marlene or the other kid or both. But never her. After his first mission, Reno had made a point of walking past again and noticed neither of the kids were anywhere to be seen. He thought it was unusual, and made a point of walking past every night that week. Not once did he see them. He was wondering if Tifa was maybe away on another trip until the Saturday night when he had once again swung by the bar, curiosity driving him crazy now. He froze as he turned the corner on the street that led to the Seventh Heaven. There she was, watering the flower baskets. His heart started to thud in his chest. He suddenly doubted if she would be happy to see him. But then he noticed what she was wearing. A plain, black tshirt that was clearly too big for her. His tshirt.

Reno couldn't help but grin. He didn't know why he had decided to give her it. Maybe so he didn't have to wear it again and remind himself of her in it. Not that it helped, he thought about her anyway. But seeing her wearing it made his mind up that he wanted to speak to her. He decided to wait until the bar had cleared. So he had gone home and waited until 1am. Waited wasn't perhaps the right word. He had paced. He had smoked. He had drank. He had paced again.

Pulling on his suit jacket to ensure he didn't meet any trouble on his way, Reno headed back to the bar just after closing time. Or what he hoped was closing time. He was standing outside, leaning against a lamppost as he saw two men stumble out of the door. They were clearly drunk, and Reno watched them as they stumbled off down the street. He looked back at the door in time to see the lights dim behind the frosted glass windows. She was closing for the night, and he wasn't sure if she would leave the building or stay for a while. Pushing himself up off his leaning post, he lightly bounded up the stairs and opened the door quietly, striding up to the bar before she had time to turn round. He saw his long black hair cascading down her back as she meant over the bar, perched on one of the stools. She appeared to be drinking, and when he saw the bottle sitting next to her he couldn't help but grin. His heart was hammering now as he watched her lean over the bar to grab him a glass, but he managed to keep his voice calm as he slid into a stool beside her.

"You remembered. What I said 'bout most places not havin' this stuff in."

That night, they had reacquainted themselves with each other. More specifically, wth their bodies. Tifa had been in disbelief that he hadn't slept with anyone else since her and queried why. Reno squirmed awkwardly and distracted her with his tongue. It turned into a game. She would ask why, and he would distract her with another orgasm. Eventually they fell asleep as the sun was coming up, and it was in her bed that Reno lay now, his arm tucked under her head as she curled against his side, dozing as the sun lightly streamed in through the window.

The truth is, he didn't know himself why he hadn't had sex with anyone else since her. It hadn't actually crossed his mind until her saw her again and the rush of blood to between his legs made him aware that it had in fact been three months. He looked down at her, his hand tracing slow lazy circles against her bare skin. It didn't matter now anyway. Whatever this was didn't need a label right now and he didn't need to explain anything to anyone, least of all her despite her teasing. He was just glad that she was pressed up against him again. He didn't have to think about how warm and full his chest felt. He didn't have to think about how he couldn't have wiped the smile off his face even if he'd tried. He didn't have to worry about the urge he had to link his fingers with hers. And he didn't have to worry about explaining himself to anyone when the arm that wasn't wrapped around her moved to satisfy that urge with the hand of hers that rested against his stomach. And he didn't have to hold back the soft kiss he placed against her head before he joined her in dozing off.

Reno was too busy thinking about all the things he didn't have to feel to pay attention to the one feeling that was securing itself within him, wrapping it's fingers around his heart. Calloused, but soft fingers.

Three months.

Without her.

He had no intention of ever going that long again.

AN : I thought I would fill in the gaps at the end for those who wanted to know how Reno ended up back at Edge. I love making him and Rude interact, definitely something I want to do more of in the future. :)