Reno punched the wall in Tseng's hospital room. Damn Sephiroth! Not only did he nearly kill Tseng, he murdered Aerith in cold blood. And there was nothing Reno could do about it. He didn't know why Aerith couldn't have remained just another woman to him. But after that first day, she frequently became part of his job. And she would tease him about keeping a record of their trysts in her diary whenever she got a chance. Her diary! Tseng would kill him if he ever found out. He better find it now...turning to leave, he bumped into Rude.
"Dammit!" Rude exclaimed as some of the hot coffee spilled on him.
"Sorry partner, something came up, I'll be back soon." Reno said before hurrying out the door.
Reno stood at a safe distance from the house where Aerith had lived with her foster mother, using his binoculars to make sure there was no signs of body heat in there, so he would have time to search for her diary without being interrupted. Picking the lock for the door, he entered the house and found her bedroom.
He took a deep breath as he realized she would never be here again. Focusing on his reason for being here, he rummaged through all her drawers and in her closet, trying to think where she would have hidden it. Sitting down on her bed in desperation, he realizes something's not right. Standing up and looking at the mattress, he noticed one corner was slightly higher than the others. Lifting it up, he was stunned to see the jacket he had given her that first day folded up nicely, and when he grabbed it, it felt heavier than it should. Putting the mattress back down, he put the jacket on the bed and unfolded it to reveal her diary. Hearing a noise at the front door, he grabbed the jacket and diary and went out the bedroom window.
He dropped the jacket and diary off at his place before heading back to the hospital. Rude was waiting for him, none too happy.
"About time you got back. Now it's my turn to have a break." Rude said before he left.
Reno positioned the chairs so he could sleep comfortably and took a nap.
Aerith thought she noticed a red spike of hair from behind one of the vendor booths as the group wandered through Gold Saucer, but it disappeared when she looked again. Was Reno following them? Someone was reporting back on their activities to Shinra. She had an idea on how to find out.
Aerith walked into Cloud's room that night, surprising him.
"What are you doing here?" Cloud asked her.
"Let's go ride the gondola." she replied.
Aerith had Cloud buy her a cotton candy on their way to the ride, and once there, Cloud was surprised to find Yuffie there waiting for them.
"You should go on the ride with her." Aerith said. "I'm not feeling good, maybe that cotton candy was too much for me." She hurriedly left them there.
"Well, let's go." Yuffie said, smiling at Cloud, who realized he was stuck for it.
Reno was eating some candy corn by the controls to the gondola ride, having bribed the employee to let him take over for a while after the ride started. He was wondering how long before it was Rude's turn to watch the Boring Brigade. He was glad Aerith had escaped the lab, but if he was ordered to…he was startled by a sudden movement to his right. He put his hand on his rod and turned to see Aerith standing there with a smug expression on her face.
"Wha…you're supposed to be on the gondola with Cloud!" Reno exclaimed.
"He and Yuffie are doing it instead." Aerith informed him.
"So, how do you like him?" Reno couldn't stop himself from asking.
"I guess I just have a thing for spiky hair." Aerith said as she touched his hair and kissed him.
As Reno undressed her, she finished unbuttoning his shirt, running her hands over his chest before she unfastened his pants. As he pulled her down to the ground, she hit the button on the control panel that would make the gondola ride continue indefinitely.
Aerith was prepared for her body's reaction this time, and while she still felt her connection to the planet intensify again as Reno lived up to his reputation, she managed to stay in her own body as she exploded.
Reno collapsed against her as their mutual climax was just as intense as last time. He wondered if it was because she was an Ancient that sex with her was different from all his other women. He felt something extra when he was with her.
"To answer your question, Cloud's okay, but sometimes he acts like a sullen jerk." Aerith said as she ran her hands over Reno's chest again.
Reno grabbed her hands, looking at them, noticing something he hadn't earlier. "You've got sticky fingers."
"It was probably the cotton candy." Aerith said, sighing as Reno kissed the residue off her fingers. When he was done, she laid herself on top of him. "I may have cotton candy fingers, but you've got candy corn breath." she said as she kissed him.
When they had sated themselves a second time, they realized they needed to get dressed and stop the gondola ride before they were discovered.
"Thanks for more material for my diary." she teased before kissing him and running off back to her hotel room.
Reno woke up, surprised to have dreamt about that time at Gold Saucer with Aerith. It was after that night that if he was following them, she would make an excuse to wander off for a short while and they would have sex, or if the Boring Brigade were staying at an inn, she would leave her window open for him. The night at the Gongaga village inn was the last time he saw her, because she got the fool idea to stop Sephiroth herself. He had bitched himself out bad for their unspoken rule never to talk about their 'professional' lives.
Elena walked in to Tseng's hospital room and told Reno to go home, she'd stay with him until he woke up. Knowing she meant it, Reno stood up and left. Once back in his apartment, he found he couldn't bring himself to burn it, even though it would ensure no one would ever find out about them. It was all that was left of her. He folded it back up in the jacket he had given her and hid it. He'd hide the diary in his office desk tomorrow, no one could find anything there.
Reno got in bed, eager to go to sleep and wake up to a new day that wasn't the 2 year anniversary of Aerith's death. He woke up a little while later, hearing a noise, and he turned the light on, noticing that his folded up jacket containing her diary that he had retrieved from the office was in a pile on his floor. He was sure he had left it on the chair. Shrugging, he turned the light off and went back to bed.
A little while later, he woke up again and noticed the jacket wasn't folded around the diary anymore. "Who's there?" he called out. When there was no response, he frowned and went back to sleep again.
The third time he woke up, he noticed the diary was totally off the jacket. He kept the lights off and went to make sure he was alone. When he came back to his bedroom, he was surprised to see the jacket on his bed. Not only that, it was moving, and he realized it was become there was someone in it.
"Who are you?" he demanded to know, reaching for one of the weapons that he kept strategically throughout his apartment.
"I…I'm not quite sure. I think I know you though." A familiar voice answered.
"Aerith?!" Reno dropped his weapon in shock.