Okay so this was supposed to be a short smutty drabble for another site, but apparently Reno and Tifa had different plans. Seriously it started out only going to be maximum three pages long... it's now 8 with a second chapter on the way... Oh my muses. And in case you couldn't tell I love Reno and Tifa.

Disclaimer: Squaresoft owns the characters and their backstories as well as just about everything associated with the Final Fantasy name. I just own the plot of this little fan fic.

Reviews please!

Payday was always the busiest night of the week. As soon as everyone got their checks cashed they flowed into the bar to waste all of that hard earned cash. Payday was the day that even the ugliest guy was on a level playing field with the wealthiest; it was all about who could flash the most money. Loose bar women always flocked to the largest wallet. Every week this same scene played out at Seventh Heaven and Tifa was tired of it. She would spend her night running here and there, filling drinks, cleaning up spills, stopping bar fights, throwing out other unruly drunks, getting hit on, flirting just enough to get men and women to buy more drinks, getting hit on again, turning down drinks, cleaning up broken glass. It would appear that Tifa was busy all night and she was, it was just the same every time the pay checks came out.

Tonight was no different from any other day when people who spent most of their week broke came wandering in. No one was turned away, as long as they could pay. She even allowed those who had caused fights on a previous night to come back. Gil was gil and she enjoyed the cash flow into her coffers. It was slow at the beginning of the night, just her and her regulars.

"Ready for the madness," laughed a grizzly old man as he sipped his whiskey. He had the beard of a mountain man and looked like a coal miner.

"I was born ready," she laughed rolling her eyes. "Another whiskey before ya go Jack?" The gnarled old man shook his head to decline the drink.

"Awe come on Jack, I'll drink one with you," she offered winking at the aged man. Flirting came with job description and Tifa was good at her job. In all reality, she hated the leers and covert touches but if it made her more money she could stomach it. All the extra money she pulled in went to buying more explosives and gear for AVALANCHE. Saving the planet was certainly worth a little sexual harassment right? It did not feel worth it some nights. Tifa knew that tonight was not going to be a good night and she was possibly going to have to rearrange a few faces before last call. Then she had to clean the bar and round up Jesse, Biggs, Wedge, and Barret, not to mention she had to manage Marlene the whole night.

"How about I just buy you one, you look worn out girl," Jack said smiling. He left his money on the bar and enough for the drink he promised Tifa. She smiled, Jack was a good guy. They usually bought their bombs and weapons through the old man.

For the next few hours a steady flow of customers kept Tifa running around, slowly losing her mind. She had pulled her hair up off her neck and used the towel that was tucked in her pocket to wipe away the sweat that was dripping down her face. Her name was shouted here and there causing her to have to sprint back and forth to keep up with all of the drunks. Keeping busy prevented her from dwelling to much about her life.

While she was part of something larger than herself she could not help but feel as if she had not accomplished much. All she could boast was a bar in the slums, one that had been close to closing multiple times thanks to AVALANCHE constantly draining her funds. She wanted to try to save up enough to send Marlene away to school; the Midgar slums was not the place to raise a small girl. Marlene seemed to be adjusted well, but the group did their best to shield the girl as best as they could.

More people wandered in, waving around wads of cash from their freshly cashed checks. Tifa groaned, thinking that the night would never end, she was managing well though. Well, she had been handling the situation single handedly until a particularly unruly group wandered in.

There were six people in the group, three men and three women. By the look of two of the men she guessed them to be body guards of the shortest one. They were big burly men and even though their job was to protect their boss, their man concern was pushing her customers out of the way to get to the bar. The three women were probably escorts or at least the type of women who were attracted to money and power more than the actual man. She suppressed another groan as she watched the women yell, scream, and behave in a manner not befitting to be in public, even in the slums. Drunken soppy mess did not begin to cover their behavior.

One of the body guards was harassing a table full of guys, trying to make them move so that his boss could sit there. The group of guys had no intention of leaving just so some guy who thought he was the king of the slums could sit down. The slums were the equalizer of all men; if you were down here then you were not anyone important. The situation was escalating as one of the seated men got up to yell in the body guard's face. Tifa let them go and as long as there were no punches thrown she would ignore the situation; but, she would keep an eye on them. Her other customers had cleared away from the altercation and a number of the weaker patrons had fled the bar entirely.

"Dammit," she shouted when she saw the man shove the body guard. Everyone reacted then, people ran to the door, others only looked up from their drinks, Tifa hopped over the bar and made her way to the now grappling pair.

"Both of you are out of my bar," she bellowed above the dull roar of the remaining crowd. She was ignored as she expected, but there was always a remedy for that. She picked up a pitcher off of a nearby table and emptied what was left of the contents on the two men who were wrestling on her floor. The scuffle stopped and both men looked up at her. The man's friends pulled him up to his feet. His nose was bloody and he had a swollen lip, but he had managed himself well. The body guard had no marks from the little fight besides ruffled hair.

"Like I said, get the fuck out," she shouted again pointing to the door. The group of men offered their apologies for their friend and all but dragged him out of the bar. They were not the problem. Body guard one was staring down at Tifa smiling, it was clear that he had no intentions of moving as he waved his boss and other companions over to the table.

"We'll have a few pitchers of beer and three margaritas sweetheart," he said taking a seat at the table.

"You'll have a nice order of get the fuck out of my bar like I said," she fumed. So this guy thought that he and his group were running the show here. "I don't know who you think you are, but this is my bar and you'll do as I say."

"I'm sure we can resolve this little problem dear," said the short man in the suit. His girls all glared at Tifa as if she were trying to steal their man.

"Yea, by your guy going outside and staying there," she smirked at the 'high roller.' No one was going to try to pull rank over her in her establishment. Sure they guy would probably spend most of his money there and she could use the extra funds, but Tifa Lockheart could not be bought. She was not for sale.

"Sweetheart-"

"It's Lockheart, now tell your guy to get out and if you want to keep trying this shit you can leave to." Her comment was met with cheers from half the bar.

"I'm just trying to make amends for my man," the short man said. He reached into his pocket and started to pull out a hand full of gil, but Tifa stopped him before he could offer it to her.

"Look, I can't be bought and you and your group need to leave. If you don't start going now, I'm going to grab you by the scruff of your neck and toss you out." Tifa chose not to take up an attack stance, choosing to only put a hand on her hip and use the other to point to the door. Clearly this man was not one who liked to be told what to do. He merely laughed and shook his head to signify that he had no intentions of doing anything that she said. The bar seemed to be emptying out rapidly, most of the people guessed that this was going to turn into a fight. They had seen Tifa fight and they wanted to be no where near her bar when this on broke out. Silently she cursed the lost business, but she knew that they would be back if not tonight then tomorrow. They were faithful to Seventh Heaven.

"You might like us to stay now that this place has turned into a ghost town," he chuckled darkly. That was it, Tifa was over his cocky attitude. She advanced but his body guards moved in front of him just in time to stop her. Tifa liked that they chose force, she would have a chance to release all the pent of stress that she had. She dropped into her fighting stance and called them out. Faintly she saw the three girls make their way to the door, but then she was back in the action.

The bodyguard who had been wrestling was the first to lunge at her. She ducked his fist and backed away. She wanted the fight to last a little be longer than one hit. He came flying at her again with his arm cocked back. He might have been big but he was no fighter, Tifa could tell. He was used to just out muscling his opponents or using a gun. Again she ducked and danced around him.

"Fucking bitch," bodyguard one yelled. Tifa only smiled in response and waited for him to rush her again. This time he grabbed a chair and came at her swinging it like a baseball bat. Tifa knew how flimsy the chair really were so she was not at all threatened by it. When the man got closer with his weapon Tifa waited until it was in striking distance. She let out a kick that smashed into the chair, sending half of it splintering across her bar. There went more money that she did not have to spare. What was left had jarred the man's arm, stopping him from coming any closer. Tifa took this chance to move in and land a number of punches to the man's stomach and torso. He was as solid as he looked. When he pulled himself together enough he tried to punch her again but Tifa dropped down and kicked his legs from under him. As she backed up something smashed into her left side knocking her down.

Bodyguard two had decided to join in the fight and he had clubbed her with another chair. Seventh Heaven was going to be a standing only bar if she did not get rid of these men faster. She regained her footing in time to see a third chair being brought into the fight. Tifa did not let them get time to throw it at her before she charged the man holding it. She knocked his feet out from under him and once he was on the ground she brought her leg up only to slam it down on his chest. She heard the air being forced out of his lungs. He would not be bothering her for a few minutes. She was able to land a few punches to the remaining body guard but before she could take him to the ground a burning pain tore through her right shoulder. It took her a few moments to register that the short rich man had shot her. He had not hit anything major and Tifa had been shot before. But being shot before did not make it any less painful.

Now that a gun was in the mix Tifa had to be a lot more careful. She did not know if that had been a warning shot or a missed shot. She moved away from the barely standing bodyguard to stare at the man with the gun. He was smiling at her.

"I didn't want it to come to this, but you're a lot stronger than we thought," he said smirking. "I'm not going to kill you this time, if you just let me and my men walk out of here."

"I don't see why any of this had to happen. I told you to leave earlier and you didn't want to. Now you're shooting me so you can do what I told you to do," she spat furiously. This situation was insane. There had to be a thousand other bars in the slums, none of them were as good as hers, but he and his men could have left and gone to one of them. "Just get the fuck out of here." With that Tifa threw her good arm up in the air and turned to get some bandaids and a cure materia. She was going to have to close down tonight just to clean up the mess and herself. More money lost. As she set about her task she heard the men leaving.

Tifa bit down on her tongue as she did her best to dig out the bullet, but she couldn't get the angle that she needed. She would just have to wait until one of her comrades came back. They were used to fixing up things like this for each other. You couldn't exactly check into a hospital when you were one every watch list. Shin-ra knew the names off all the members of AVALANCHE but unless they actually caught them while they were trying to blow up one of the reactors, there was nothing the corporation could do. They had no proof that Tifa, Barret, Jesse, Biggs, and Wedge were members of the group.

Rather than get up and start cleaning up the mess, Tifa grabbed a bottle of vodka off the shelf and poured her self a drink. Her eyes scanned the room, there was the mess of the place just being a crowded bar, plus all the broken chairs. It was a good thing that Tifa had switched to plastic cups for busy night. There still was the glass beer bottles littering the floor, a few broken ones here and there. Cleaning was not going to be fun with the pain in her shoulder. She debated just waiting until tomorrow to deal with it but ruled against that. She had to take care of Marlene and go pick up some more explosives. Tifa finished her drink in one swallow and wished that she could on the other side of the bar as a customer. She wished she could be someone else, anywhere else, and doing something other than living the crummy life that she had now.

She was so engrossed by her pity that she did not hear the door open. It was only when a pale hand waved in front of her face that she was drawn back to reality. Once she realized who the hand belonged to she prayed to be able to go back to the fantasy world she had been creating for herself. Reality was not her friend and neither was any deity considering the person they had sent to her bar. It was Reno, the red headed Turk who had been spying on her and AVALANCHE for the past month. He had never come in the bar before, but he was there whenever she met up with her arms dealer, he followed her in the shadows trying to find out where AVALANCHE's hideout was. Tifa scowled at him.

"You plan on ruining what's left of my night," she spat. "I don't deal with Shin-ra."

"Look I just want a drink," he said in a slightly defeated manner. Tifa finally looked at him. His suit was disheveled as usual, but in parts it was spattered with blood, as were his hands. He had just killed and now he was standing there asking for a drink. Tifa was enraged that he would come to her bar with blood on his hands, but what else would she expect from a Turk.

"I don't deal with Shin-ra."

"I'm not here as a Turk," he said sitting down on a stool. "My shift just ended." He was trying to make a joke, but his usual humor was gone. The man sitting before her was not the Reno that she was used to dealing with. It was as if all the fire and fight in him had died tonight. What she did not notice though was that his defeated expression mirrored her own.

"Who shot you?" he asked pointing to her bleeding shoulder. It was as if his mentioning the bullet made it real again because her arm started to throb.

"Just some guy. Look Reno, just leave," was what she responded with.

"Lockheart, let's pretend that we're different people; you're not in AVALANCHE and I'm not a Turk tonight. We'll just be regular people," he offered. What he proposed was exactly what Tifa had been thinking. She would have given anything to be a regular person at that moment.

"What do you want to drink," she asked consenting to his plan.

"Just pass over whatever you're drinking," he responded. Tifa handed him a glass and the bottle. First he poured more in her glass and then added some to his own. "Sit, have a drink with me. You look like you could use another one." Tifa had been planning to start cleaning, but having another drink was too appealing to pass up. She walked around the bar and took a seat on the stool next to him. Reno raised his glass as a toast.

"I don't have anything to drink or toast to," she admitted while staring at his glass. It was the truth. The planet was still being drained dry by Shin-ra, she had lost a lot of money tonight, gotten shot, and was now drinking with the enemy.

"Here's to surviving the hand that we've been dealt," he said bringing his drink down to chink against her's. Tifa shook her head but took a slow sip of her drink. He had a point though, anyone else probably would have folded a long time ago, but Tifa was still here. She was still fighting to make something in her life go right. She was about to ask Reno something when a sharp pain burned through her arm. That bullet was not going to let her ignore it any longer. She hissed through the pain and took a large drink of vodka. The Turk at her side turned to glance at the wound. Being shot or shooting was all in a days work for him. He pulled out his pocket knife and held the closed blade up to Tifa as if asking 'may I?' She nodded and he began to dig the metal slug from her shoulder. Tifa refused to scream, only gasping when she went to draw in more air. Reno made short work of her wound, he was a professional.

"Thanks," she said when he was finished. The blood that had previously been clotting was now dripping from the hole in her arm. Tifa ignored it and poured herself another drink. They looked like a crazy pair, both covered in blood and unconcerned with it.

"Ever wonder what it's like to be a regular person," he asked refreshing his own drink. That was not a question she would have ever expected to hear coming from him. She thought that Reno loved his job, the zeal and savage skill he had was a testament to that. But to his question, she had been thinking that when he walked in the door. What it would be like to not be on a mission to save the planet, to just be blissfully ignorant of everything, to not have a past and future that were bathed in blood.

"It's a dangerous thought." The truth. When death and destruction were a daily occurrence in your life it was better to not think about things that could make you happy. Wishing to be someone happier was a distraction and could only serve the purpose of shortening your lifespan. "But yea, I do."

"You know, when I signed up for this job I thought it was going to get me out of the slums." More expected words from Reno. She had not known that he was from the slums, she guessed that he was from some spoiled, affluent family of the upper plate. "But I'm still here."

"Why not quit," she asked.

"The only way to leave is in a pine box."

"I came here to get answers and revenge."

" 'Bout the Nibelheim incident?"

"Yea. Shin-ra ruined my life and refused to say anything about it." Her anger was starting to build. Sometime after receiving no answer about her questions, Tifa had gotten mixed up with Avalanche. They gave her a way to get revenge on Shin-ra, but now she was focused on the planet.

"What kind of regular life would you want to live? House in the country with 2.5 children and a dog? Wealthy business woman?" His question reminded her that they were not enemies tonight, they were just two people having a breakdown.

"I don't know. I think I'd want to own a bed and breakfast near Costa del Sol. You know, not in the resort town, but not in the middle of no where. Just far enough to have it's own spot near the beach but close enough to make getting there easy." Tifa stared into her drink imaging what it would be like to live that life. Her most difficult task would be making beds and doing laundry. "It wouldn't be on of those grandma run ones. It'd be nice, classy, trendy, but still cozy. I like to cook so breakfast would be ready in the morning if my customers would want to come down and eat. Everything made from scratch, none of that premade microwave garbage." Tifa continued to expand her dream, describing in detail what she would make for breakfast each day and how she would decorate the rooms.

"What about you?" she asked remembering that she was sitting with Reno not just talking to an empty room.

"I thought you didn't know what you would do," he joked. "But I really don't. I don't even know if I have hobbies or things I like to do that don't involve work. I've tried to imagine myself doing something else and being in another place but I can't. I was born a thug and I'll die a thug."

"A door to door salesman," Tifa chimed in. The alcohol was helping the pain in her arm subside and was making her brain a little fuzzy. She and Reno had all but finished the bottle.

"What?"

"Yea, you'd probably sell central air conditioning systems and you'd probably be good at it. Actually, you'd probably get fired for trying to sleep with all the lonely housewives. You know, knock on the door, 'excuse me ma'am but is your husband home,' they'd say 'no,' you'd still go in, and the next thing you know you're out the door and their laying on the beds smoking a cigarette." Tifa actually laughed imagining Reno running out of a house being chased by an angry husband. Reno joined in with her laughter. He had to admit that she had given him a job that he could possibly do and the honest reason as to why he would get fired.

"I think you've got me down Lockheart," he said still chuckling.

"Tifa," she said smiling. It was odd, she never expected to be sitting down, drinking, and laughing with one of her enemies. She should he been fighting him but she was actually starting to enjoy his company. Maybe they really were just regular people underneath the hard and cruel exteriors they showed the world.

"You should bandage that up Tifa," he said pointing to her still bleeding arm. And just like that, they were back in reality. There was no bed and breakfast, no angry husbands chasing a semi nude salesman, they were two bloody and worn out souls in a bar. Tifa stood up and went to retrieve that bandages she had gathered earlier. She returned in a few minutes with those and a fresh bottle of vodka for the two of them.

"You know I'd probably try to sell you a unit," he said laughing. Some of the old Reno was coming back to life, Tifa wondered if it would chase away the Reno that saw her as just a person and not an enemy. "Would you buy it?"

"Depends on how good your sales pitch was," she muttered cleaning out the hole in her arm. She had forgotten the cure materia, so she just wrapped it up and left that detail for later. "How hard would you try?" she asked pouring more vodka in their glasses.

"I'd probably be more concerned about getting in you pants then selling the air conditioner," he admitted. Normally a comment like that would have set Tifa off because she was not working so flirting back was not on the table. But the matter of fact way that he had said it made the statement more acceptable or perhaps it was just the alcohol clouding her judgment.

"Again, how good is your sales pitch," she joked back. Had she just said that. Reno was used to women laughing at his flirtatious statements, slapping him, or falling into his arms. Not once had he met a woman that flirted back. He knew it was nothing serious, but it had still happened. And what had he been doing by admitting that he would try to sleep with her. That was certainly something you did not say to your enemy. But again, tonight they weren't enemies so it was okay. "But seriously, I think a bed and breakfast should have ceiling fans and old fashioned water radiators in the room."

"I suppose you're right, but I'd still try?"

"I wouldn't have pegged you as the type of guy to walk away after being rejected only once." There it was again, her flirting with him. He had not meant for that to happen; it was odd being on the receiving end.

"Nope, not me. We salesmen are persistent people," he laughed keeping up their roleplay. His mind was screaming at him to get up and walk away. He was swimming in dangerous waters and was possibly going to drown in them. The question was, would he be upset about drowning in these waters?

"You know, I keep waiting for a switch to be flipped and for us to go back to having to do our jobs. You'd be spying on me again and I'd be working this bar and getting shot by assholes." She had purposefully left out anything that would tie her to Avalanche and their activities. Anything she said could and would be used against her when they returned to the real world.

"Same," he admitted. She had made the decision for him and pulled him out of the deep water and back to the shallows. "I guess we can't really escape who we are and the life we're living."

"No but we can try," she said pouring him another drink. The two raised their glasses and clinked them together.

"What are we drinking to this time?" he asked.

"To the power of alcohol. It makes all men equal and can help us forget who we are and all our troubles, if only for one night." she said before chugging her drink. Reno agreed and did the same to his.

Did you like? Did you hate? Is it too OC? Let me know, I like reviews!