Runner's high was applied to a big fraction of this piece. Screw it.
The Sacred and Profane's indirect um, …request (of Red)? Naa. Gift fic/challenge fic (?) if you will. …Whatever. Srsly, iono. AU. Lol. Be ready with—ah. I lost the word.
April-esque. (Haha, that's so wrong.) \(≥⌂≤)/ Tadaa! Just enjoy.
Here's Yours?
They met, on a fine day, in a square.
Not really 'met' but merely 'stumbled upon', so to speak. She was wearing a black cloak that covered her completely except for her barely seen face. And he was strolling leisurely, hooded, to avoid people's glances. After all, he should be on a low profile. It was his break time.
A small girl with a long braid was reaching for a balloon in a tree, and a little boy was up the nearby branch. The person in total black voiced out in concern.
"What are you doing up there?" she asked. A female. Around 18-20, roughly, he thought.
"Marlene's balloon got stuck. I was gonna get it for her but I didn't know how to go back down," the boy replied shakily. Poor thing, she thought. She hopped and reached the string, handing it to the grateful little girl.
"Thank you. I won't lose it again."
"Now to get you down," she told the boy. "Hold still." She deftly climbed up the huge tree and got to the boy's level, a great distance from terra firma. She was never a great fan of heights and avoided them as much as possible but this boy, she couldn't just ignore him. She told the boy to hold on to her as she leapt down in one graceful movement. She gave them a ruffle on each head before they left.
Reno had watched this from the beginning. With interest and puzzlement, of course.
Doesn't she feel hot in that? He thought to himself. She caught him eyeing her and she gave him a warm smile as she nodded. "Do you need saving too?" she asked.
How very bold.
He shrugged mindlessly. "Nah. I think you're the one who needs savin', girl. 'sup with all that black?" he asked. She grinned in response.
"Just a favorite color. You know, I think I can love someone like you." She left him with her long, black cloak fluttering behind her. He stared her in utter bemusement. It was then the wind blew a little harder and her hood threw back, revealing her long midnight-black hair.
Black. And …love him? What the hell?
Black hair was never common in Edge (apart from Tseng). Now the people were somewhat superstitious of black. Reno himself was no different, though he was half skeptical of it. He was the type who went by 'seeing is believing'. He shook his head furiously.
Had he just encountered Death? If so, he must be lucky enough not to die that moment. His mental image of death would be a cloak-wearing, homicidal, blood-crazed, psycho but all he saw was a woman in black. So she couldn't have been Death.
They say black means curse. Black is a bad omen. Black symbolizes evil. Black is simply, death.
He was still unconvinced, though, mostly because his colleagues wore black as their daily uniform. His cell rang and he answered it, aware he was about to be late for work. He shrugged off the thought of love, thinking it was just another puppy love from a typical fangirl.
-- -- --
Their next meeting wasn't so hard to overlook either.
Tifa was still hooded in her conspicuous black getup. Him? Let's say he had his hood off for the weekend, showing off his bright red—natural—locks. She was buying an apple from a stall this time, with some people backing away while others paid no attention to her.
She bit once.
"So the Black Riding Hood buys an apple, eh? Wasn't she supposed to give?" he asked her, attempting to strike up a conversation.
Tifa smiled while munching on her object of attention. "If I'm the Riding Hood, does that make you the big bad wolf?" He returned her smile with a half grin.
"Naw, I don't hunt girls in black." She shrugged.
"Good, for I wasn't really needing a hunter to save me from one. Apple?" She handed the one she was holding. "You can have the other side. It isn't poisoned…like Snow White had it."
"Kay, then." He reluctantly took it.
Tifa observed him like how a hawk observes its prey. The thing that was totally standing out was of course, his hair. Something inside her stirred. Red. She had come across so many entities associated with red. But he was everything she could think of.
Red means passion. Red is power. Red symbolizes strength. Red is a color. And red is simply, to stop.
…Her gaze actually stopped at him, examining his strong and sharp features, his tattoo, and how painfully slow he was scanning that red apple of hers. It didn't occur to her until he took the first bite.
Crunch.
Was that how it sounded when she had bitten earlier? Sharp and crispy—yet it hinted a subtle and fresh gentleness. –Or that only applies to him. Whichever. Tifa was getting distracted by his action of eating the apple and she couldn't fight back the warmth that exuded from her face when he noticed her staring at him.
"Something on my face?" he inquired, raising a scrutinizing frown.
"Ah… No… Not really."
"There's somethin', right? Your 'Ah' gives it away."
"W-what makes you think that?" she stammered. Reno grinned at her loss of coolness.
"The way you ogle at me is hard to ignore, babe." Tifa's cheeks turn to several shades of rose, flustering, and Reno couldn't make his grin any wider than it was now.
"I'm not ogling you. You can have that apple if you so want it." She turned away to leave but halted in her steps when he called out his name, almost in desperation for reasons he couldn't fathom.
"Name's Reno. Yours?" Desperate indeed. She stared at one of the corner of her eyes, as if pondering whether to respond or not.
"Tifa. …And I believe I can love you," she said simply, smiling before retreating into the crowd. He blinked unnecessarily, trying to digest what he heard.
…What did she just say?
-- -- --
"Tseeeng," he called, bored. Reno was balancing pens and paper clips on an eraser.
"I would appreciate it if you do something productive," Tseng muttered from behind his desk. Receiving no response from Reno, he peered over to him. Reno was slumped in a lethargic way with one cheek resting on the flat surface.
"Why's your hair black?"
"Work," Tseng commanded, sighing inwardly.
"I'm serious here. Why is it black?"
"I'm not a local person here, if you don't already know that. Get to work."
"Gah." His balance was demolished by his very breath. Reno groaned. "I have to do it over again."
"If only you're that dedicated to your work in office."
"Screw it. You know me. I'm not an office person. I prefer walkin' around."
"Reno."
"Right. Work." Reno sighed. He longed to go out but after twice of being late, he was punished with paperwork. He was never a person suited to the confines of florescent lightings. …And he couldn't keep his mind off Tifa, wondering how she would look like without her hood from the front. He'd realized by then he actually missed her. Someone he barely knew.
Would she miss him the way he did? Holy crap. He did not just think of that. Truthfully, he did enjoy her company and the occasional smiles he gained from her. Her words still haunted him relentlessly, making him having fitful sleeps for a long time.
-- -- --
Their third meeting was weeks after.
Tifa had daringly released her cloak this time. She was still in black, though. Her hair was tied up to a long fishtail with a red ribbon. A new addition to her black complex. She was strolling happily, ignoring some whispers of the local people of her being an evil person or so.
The little boy whom she saved walked up to her. "Here, big sister. A thank you gift for saving me." He gave her a small, simple, unnamed red flower—an aster, maybe. "Marlene and I thought it would suit you." She smiled sweetly at him, deeply gratified.
"Thank you," she said. "For remembering me." The boy grinned in return and jogged back to his companion.
Again, Reno had watched this with amazement—partly because she didn't have the annoying black flag wrapping her and partly of her ethereal dark beauty. He noticed the red ribbon.
Red, huh?
"Yo," he greeted.
"Tifa," she corrected.
"Whatever. What brings you here?" Tifa laughed softly and her eyes laughed along.
"I wanted to show you my new ribbon." He shrugged, feigning impassiveness. Inside, he was clearly elated that something of his color was pinned onto her. "And this flower." She giggled at him as she showed him the flower.
"I noticed, yo."
"That's it for today, then?" She tilted her head.
"…Uhh." Reno clearly did not know what else to say, despite the fact he liked her appearance now than before. "Dinner." He held out his hand—an invitation to go with him, to trust him.
"With pleasure."
Later that night, he was having a hard time sleeping again. Because of another puzzling remark coming from her.
"Yo, what do you mean when you said you think you can love …me?" She shrugged, giving him a smile that threw away his soul before she sipped her cappuccino.
"I mean what I said."
"What about—"
"Believe? That's self-explanatory, isn't it?"
"No doubt," he huffed.
They continued talking in-depths about themselves, oblivious to the time and their surrounding. She had laughed to his jokes and things he did to his friends. They discovered their respective likes and dislikes save for one. Color, something that he was really hoping to ask since red was included. At the end of their small occasion, she gave him a tingling soft kiss.
"I know I love you now."
"Why?" he asked in bafflement.
"Why not?"
"Why not…" he muttered. True. You don't need a reason to love. You don't need a reason why you shouldn't love either. Damn, she's good, he thought.
He had always have butterflies in the pit of his stomach whenever he was around her. He accepted her flaws just like she did for him. He had been really glad of her coming to his life. He constantly thought of her.
He couldn't explain, he didn't know the reason of why he had that feeling—let alone to know what the feeling was.
Perhaps, it is love. Simple as that.
Dammit.
Trying to sleep, he vowed he would go find her, find her, find her…to what?
-- -- --
To make a fool out of himself by asking…
"Black is my favorite, yo. Yours?"
His own modified version was now 'Black is beautiful. Mystifying as Tifa herself, it symbolizes mystery. Black swallows you whole but never is enough to drown you if you know it well.' Simply put, black reminded him of her.
"…Red is now my favorite color, Reno."
"Why?" he asked, though he had a vague idea what she would say.
"Why not? It's you. Now I have stated my reason… What about yours?"
"Heh. Same as yours."
They laughed together, realizing the truth what had attracted them the first time they met—the colors that they went by. She rested her forehead on his shoulder, still laughing and he raised his hand to take hold of her frame—appreciating her whole existence…not just the two assets of hers.
"I'll be yours only," she whispered against his shoulder.
"I'd like that, babe."
Red is, well, … Reno. She chuckled to her own contemplation. The -red- apple of my eye.
Whoa. I realized it was always the 'her' that's making the 'him' fall in love. Or forcing him, rather. Lol. Yay for heheheheheeehhTifa'sSubtleStalking! Sorry for the gaps lol. xD I'm sleepy. Oyasumiii.