I don't own FF7 or its characters and make no profits writing these stories.
Tifa was surprised when her boyfriend, Reno agreed to go camping with her and started making a list of all the things they needed: a tent, sleeping bags, fishing poles...until he silenced her with a kiss and said he promised her he would take care of everything.
She was dressed to rough it while waiting for him to pick her up, wearing jeans and a sturdy flannel shirt when a luxury motorhome pulled up in front of her. Reno got out and said with a bow "your carriage awaits milady" as he stowed her bags inside of it.
"What the hell is this?" she exclaimed when he gave her a tour of it. She was overwhelmed by the full sized stainless steel appliances and marble counter tops in the kitchen. It had a kitchen table with chairs, a large comfy looking couch beside it and a large flat screen TV on the adjoining wall. The walls were done in a handsome cherry wood finish. There was a three piece washroom and steps that led up to a bedroom with closets and other storage for clothes and a huge bed. It had a washer and dryer for their clothes for Goddess's sake!
"It's our camper van that I rented" he explained. "You said you wanted to go camping" he reminded her at the weird look she was giving him. Tifa looked at him, she's been in camper vans before, with their obligatory uncomfortable mattresses for kids that folded down, which were actually the same uncomfortable seats they had been sitting on all day, only folded down to reveal their cardboard thin mattress while the adults fared no better in their own folded down mattress. This. Wasn't. Even. Close.
"I meant as in the woods; sleeping in a tent and roughing it" she explained.
"I have to do that on the job once in a while and it sucks. Besides, I'm a city boy through and through, if you want to camp, let's do it in style" he said spreading his arms to indicate the luxury vehicle.
"This is nicer then either of our places" she cautiously said.
"Speak for yourself, woman. I could have a family of five comfortably sleep in my place, well the married couple in one room and the three children would have their own rooms..." he said and then trailed off at the other weird look she was giving him. He blushed again, Tifa was so different from other women he'd brought to his place, she had simply said it was nice, where other women looked at it with dollars signs in their eyes and asked how much it had set him back? Was he a lawyer (no but he'd taken down lots of corrupt ones on orders)? Was he a doctor (nope but he knew as much as about bone manipulation as they did)? Tifa knew what he did and didn't judge. She asked for nothing and made him believe he was a man worthy of her no matter what he had been. She wasn't materialist and he felt he could have plucked a pebble from the ground while on mission as a gift and she would treasure it like it was a diamond. He felt cherished the most when on a mission and she insisted on a text from him before he went to bed, letting her know he was fine. Her texts saying to sleep well and she missed him were priceless to him, that someone cared in the universe what happened to him. He would go to sleep with a smile on his face.
"Where are we even going to park this behemoth?" she asked him, still looking at him in a speculative way.
"I booked us into one of the finest RV campgrounds around. There's a small town nearby for supplies or to dine out, a swimming pool and a beach and lots of stuff to do. They even have those movie nights, like they have in the parks that you keep dragging me to. Come on, you'll love it, trust me. We have two weeks to relax and enjoy ourselves and not having to worry about your pals finding out I've been dipping my wick into AVALANCHE territory" he said with a grin.
She blushed at this, "I'm telling them soon" she promised him. "After you tell me your real name and explained who you were before you became Reno" she countered.
He looked away at this. "I'm not sure I should tell you. I'm not him anymore" he said.
"He can't have been that bad, I'm certainly enjoying what he has become" Tifa said cupping his cheek.
"Come on Princess, let's get this royal coach rolling on out before we're discovered" he said to distract her.
Tifa was surprised to find out that their site was reserved under Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair. "But why?" she asked Reno after they had checked in.
He seemed to go red at this, they had only been going out for a couple of months. "I didn't want to tarnish your reputation by insinuating we weren't married" he answered.
"No one knows us here and if they did, these aren't the 1800's. Men and women can live together without having to be married" she pointed out.
"I'm new to this relationship stuff" he answered defensively and blushed an even darker red when she chuckled and hugged him. He wondered if she was trying to hint at something. Certainly they couldn't live in her small apartment forever having to listen to bar noises from below. His place was better suited for a couple and she could finally do something with that of mess of a front garden she was always nagging him about. His house's previous owner had put it in, he was a busy professional. What did he care about stupid flowers?
"Half a gil for your thoughts" Tifa said, waving a hand in front of her boyfriend's face as he seemed to be daydreaming.
"They aren't worth that" he said in a strangled voice as he helped her out of the passenger seat and neatly hooked their mobile motel room up. He wondered why Tifa's face lit up when he showed her everything all functional, he couldn't know that this was the nicest place she'd ever been in and wished she could have her honeymoon in it. But he complied by carrying her to bed and ravishing her with gusto after they ate dinner. She seemed so happy with his surprise and that made him unable to stop grinning when he helped her with the dishes in a tousled state that she shared.
They had a wonderful time being another anonymous couple amongst lots of others as they got to know their neighbours and would wave at them while on their way to events, lounging before their RV or going out for walks. They would laze on the beach or go for dinners in town when Tifa wasn't whipping up delicious meals for them in the RV's kitchen. It was just nice to be together and at the end of the day, they would fall asleep in each other's arms after making love. It was a magical time in their new relationship.
Reno found himself musing about a future shared with her while they were in a little country and western bar walking distance from the campground. She sang "You Belong To Me" on the karaoke machine while looking directly at him while she swayed in time the music and then laughingly ran to burrow into his arms in a tipsy way and caught his lips in a demanding kiss. He smiled at the applause and kissed the top of her head when she lowered her head to his shoulder to mask her blush, enjoying the feeling of the warm cotton of his t-shirt against her face, his firm chest and his clean, masculine scent. It felt so good to be held, touched and made love to after years of neglect.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and they were on the couch wrapped up naked and cuddling and contented in the comforter from their bed. They had been watching a movie when a frisky Tifa opted to seduce Reno; not a hard thing to do when it was his sexy new girlfriend.
Tifa was enjoying the afterglow and lay with her head on Reno's chest, while his own head was propped up on some cushions.
"Gavin" he suddenly said and she looked up at him. "That was my name; Gavin McLeod" he admitted.
"Gavin's a beautiful name" she encouraged him and he frowned at this. Men weren't supposed to have beautiful names!
"You wouldn't have liked Gavin, he was a thug, he would cheat and steal do anything outside of rape to survive. He was a dirty street rat" Reno explained.
"He couldn't have been all bad" Tifa protested, turning over so they were chest to chest and she could see his face.
"He had no redeeming features and wasn't a prince in the rough like they show in the movies, you cleaned the dirt off of him and you just found more dirt underneath, he would have sold his own grandmother if it meant he didn't have to starve" Reno said, afraid to look at her.
"I'm sure things were tough for him, he didn't have any parents" Tifa protested; Reno had told her that much, wondering why he was talking like he had never been Gavin.
Reno took a fortifying breath before forging ahead with his story "he was trash, he was smug and arrogant and thought he was so tough. He joined a street gang and was given their tattoos and took up amateur bare knuckle boxing and made a name for himself doing it. The only reason why he didn't rape was because girls loved him, were drawn to him like flies to the shit he was. Loved to run their fingers through his pretty, bright red hair and loved how he made them feel when he fucked them. He thought he was the king shit at seventeen. Then it all went wrong for him. He was in a knife fight with another boy. He was just trying to teach him a lesson, the guy was in a rival gang member and was dating the sister of Gavin's gang leader without permission. An example had to be made of him, but Gavin was just going to cut him a little, he wasn't trying to kill him. The other man slipped and literally fell onto Gavin's knife and it pierced his heart. Gavin was arrested and tried as an adult despite his youth. The court appointed attorney barely even tried to defend his death penalty case, Gavin was already condemned before he got on the stand just for having gang tattoos. Witnesses were produced and although Gavin plead guilty to manslaughter, he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. He spent the next year on death row before his date was set and he was given a piece of paper to write down the names of his last visitors and witnesses to his execution, he realized then he had no one to request to come and handed it back blank. Refusing even a priest. The night before his execution, he told himself he was going to be stoic but he paced his cell like a caged animal and gave into tears. That's when the Wutaian man in a dark blue suit showed up and told him that his agility in the ring had caught the eye of someone and he had the choice of dying and being reborn or just dying. So he went with him, yet Gavin died in that cell by hanging himself, at least the public was told that. This made the victim's family angry but at least he was dead and Gavin's death went unmourned. I chose the name Reno for where I believed my father lives, not out of love or respect for him, but for finding a place to get lost in as he did. I was reborn by that name and tried to better myself, I had a stable position, respect, supportive friends and made a good salary. I no longer had to live hand to mouth, wondering where my next meal was coming from. I drank a lot and picked up girls who smelled clean and not of desperation. I had so many girls wanting me, I was popular but I was lonely at the same time because I let no one close. It went on like that for years until I had a woman I'd always admired sit down and tell me of her woes while feeling particularly down, especially about her never having been taken on a real date..." he stopped.
"And you asked me when you should pick me up. You had a dress delivered to me from one of the fanciest shops in town. You picked me up in a limo, you were wearing a tuxedo and had your hair slicked back. You wined and dined me at the nicest restaurant in town and then took me dancing until the wee hours of the morning. It was the most special night of my life. At the end of the night, I told you I wasn't going to sleep with you and you gave me a kiss on the cheek and dropped me off at home" Tifa said smiling at the memory.
"Four days later you showed up at my house, an address you weren't supposed to be able to find, but I guess you have friends in lofty places just like I do. You came in, I offered you coffee but you took me to bed instead, your only explanation being you wanted me. It was sex like I had never encountered before, tender but wanton and I committed to you on the spot without a thought when you asked me not to date anyone else until we're through" he supplied. "Now you know what you have been with, what you have allowed inside of you. I'll understand if you want to break up with me" Reno said though only feeling dread at the idea, he felt like he was on the verge of a panic attack waiting for her answer.
"I find myself rather addicted to you and would rather stay that way if you don't mind" She said. "Gavin or Reno; you belong to me as long as you wish to."
"I hope you have the next eternity free then, because I find myself rather addicted to you too" he said kissing her in a possessive way while his heart skipped a beat.