For The Sacred and Profane, who has a wicked sense of "what goes around comes around", and who has once again accomplished getting me to write something I never thought I would. Thanks for reading!

Rated M warning for sensitive subject matter and a small amount of mild erotic content.

I neither own nor profit from ffvii or its characters.

Enjoy.

fire mystic

Facing the Truth

Reno looked at the two women he was sitting with, total shock apparent on his face.

What the hell?

He couldn't think past the words he had just heard. He was stuck in the vortex of thought spinning around in his head. Had he heard that right? Just how drunk was Elena? Would she remember this tomorrow? Hell, how drunk was he? Had Yuffie known the whole time?

No. The answer to that last one was pretty clear. He shook himself out of his state of confused astonishment to check out the White Ninja of Wutai, or whatever the hell they called her. Yuffie was glancing back and forth between him and Elena, her face flashing from shock to horror to outrage and back again so fast it was almost funny, and she had been, for the first time since Reno had known her, rendered speechless.

In the meantime, totally oblivious to the effect her bombshell had on either of her friends, Elena had laid her head down on the table and fallen fast asleep, giving an occasional snore as she muttered in her sleep.

"Did I hear her right?" Reno asked.

Yuffie simply nodded. Damn. Maybe Reno should find more ways to shock her like this.

"I thought you two were friends. She never even hinted?"

Yuffie shook her head, eyes still too wide, mouth opening and closing in an attempt to work. Still, nothing came out.

He stood up, his mind retreating back into a melee of troubling questions and concerns, and had turned and taken a couple of steps away from the table before thinking to clarify something more with Yuffie.

"What are we going to do about this?"

Yuffie's lips formed something that might have been "I", but then seemed to get stuck there. Reno took her shrug and repeated shaking of the head as the clearest answer he was going to get. He stepped out onto the street, breathing deeply the fresh air, now fully aware that he wasn't nearly as drunk as he had thought, but thinking it might have been a good idea.

Elena was in love. That should have been a good thing. Reno should be happy for her.

And he would have been. Problem was her crush was on Tifa Lockhart.

His girlfriend.

Yuffie was aghast. She stared at the door Reno had just walked out of for a good five minutes before her eyes drifted back to the blonde head of hair that was so ungracefully spread across the table.

She had gotten to know Elena after that battle with the remnants. The Turks had been decimated in Shinra's fall, and Elena was left the only woman in the group. The lines of good and bad had blurred and been re-drawn, which left the open the opportunity for new friendships to form. And they had, some stranger than others. Strangest of them all, as far as Yuffie was concerned was Tifa dating Reno. Reno! Of all people! Oh, he was all well and good, and now that Yuffie had gotten to know him, she had discovered that he wasn't the complete ass she had thought him to be. In fact, he was fun to be around and knew how to have a good time. But what Tifa saw in him, Yuffie still wasn't sure. On the other hand, her befriending Elena had seemed completely natural; Yuffie was friendly and outgoing and provided Elena with someone to get away from the boys with once in a while, and they balanced each other out. Yuffie helped bring Elena out of her prim-proper-perfect shell and loosen her up, while Elena kept Yuffie's wilder side from getting her into excessive trouble.

Tonight, however, it seemed Elena was the one that had walked on the wild side, although, Yuffie thought with wry humor, Elena was not very suited for it.

Drinking wasn't par for the course for Elena, but tonight she had gone at it with gusto, and Yuffie had found out why it might be better if Elena didn't indulge more often; as it turned out, Elena was depressing-turning-to-anger/self pity drunk. This was so not good, especially with her enlightening news. Yuffie had no clue about Elena's crush on Tifa until the blonde blurted it out with a loud, sarcastic laugh, but could she have possibly done it in more awkward company? For once, Yuffie was left without any reaction besides silent shock, facing Reno across the table, trying to figure out what to say to the bombshell that Elena was in love with his girlfriend.

And, Yuffie mulled, as if that weren't bad enough, wait till Elena sobered up and found out what she had confessed. Yuffie wasn't always great at thinking things through to their conclusion, but she figured there was no way that Elena wasn't going to have to face this at some point, even if it was only to smooth things over with Reno.

Pushing her drink away, no longer interested in the effects of the alcohol, Yuffie dropped her head down into her hands. What would Reno do with this information? She figured it would either give him fodder for picking on Elena for months to come, maybe years, or that it would put a wedge between them, ruin their friendship. And would Reno tell Tifa? She simply didn't know Reno well enough to make a guess at that, but she hoped Reno was savvy enough to know that it wasn't his place, that if anyone were going to tell Tifa about this, it would have to be Elena. And what would Tifa think of that? Was there a remote possibility Tifa might be interested if she found out Elena's feelings? It was a question Yuffie didn't even want to think about, because crowding it out was her own overwhelming feelings about the entire situation.

Their being a couple could not be allowed. Elena couldn't be in love with Tifa. Because it wasn't fair! Tifa had never shown any sign of feeling anything remotely romantic towards Elena, and had never given Elena so much as the time of day compared to, well, herself!

"After all", Yuffie muttered, shaking Elena until she got a slight stir, and then standing to carefully lift her semi-conscious friend and help her home, "I'm the one who loves you."

Tifa tilted her head back as Reno rolled them over, giving him access to her neck, shuddering and moaning as he swirled his tongue at the hollow of her throat and then licked a path along the slender curve, teeth grazing, before latching onto and sucking at the soft, sensitive skin just below her chin.

Gaia, was there anything better than this? Months into dating him, and making out with her on the couch, on the floor, on the…come to think of it, anywhere he happened to think of, still felt as wicked and illicit as the first time. It had surprised Tifa how much Reno enjoyed this, never rushing. On the contrary, he had a way of drawing it out and turning it into an exquisite form of torture, leaving her feeling spent and languid, even before the clothes came off.

Tonight he seemed particularly intense, focusing specifically on those spots he knew were most responsive, lingering through Tifa gasping, arching, and wriggling against him, and then moving on to the next sensitive bundle of nerves.

He withdrew from his current obsession as she turned her face to him and caught her mouth in a searing kiss, and she didn't even care that she couldn't breathe when he caressed his tongue against hers in a deep, determined invasion of her senses.

It took her a few moments after he drew back from the kiss to return to reality and find Reno studying her with a strange expression on his face, a strange combination of thoughtfulness, curiosity, and possible concern replacing the flush of desire he previously had. He was playing with a strand of her hair, wrapping it around his finger, and then rolling the strands back and forth. A chill crept along Tifa's skin as she realized something wasn't right.

"What's wrong, Reno?" She asked, voice still wispy. His eyes slid away from her face and she felt his body tense up as he shook his head and tried to shrug it off. Gently, she smoothed a hand from where it rested on his waist to caress along his face. She didn't force him to look at her, but traced the tattoo high on his cheek with one finger. His eyes closed at that; it was the same way she traced his scars, one of her most tender caresses, one she used only in very close intimacy.

"Tell me, Reno."

"It's silly." It might have been, he knew, but it was also driving him to distraction, and he felt awful that the questions kept lingering and swirling around in his head, until he knew he had no choice but to put voice to them. He didn't even know how to say it, to ask.

"Tell me anyway," she gently urged.

Reno took a deep breath and let it out.

"Have you ever kissed another woman?"

Her forehead scrunched a bit in confusion, and she smiled slightly, clearly puzzled by the question.

"Of course I have. My mother, my friends." What an odd question for him to ask; it certainly wasn't what she had expected, and he was shaking his head again, which meant she hadn't really answered what he was asking.

"No, I mean have you ever really kissed another woman? You know, like I just kissed you."

Curled up in the overstuffed chair, Yuffie silently observed Elena pacing back and forth across her living room floor. She stopped, finally, turning to Yuffie, a cross between disbelief and tell-me-it-isn't-so dominating her features.

"Are you sure I said that?"

Yuffie nodded.

"In front of Reno?"

"Oh, yeah. You should have seen his face."

Elena slumped onto the couch, dropping her head in her hands.

"What am I going to do?"

Biting her lip, Yuffie contemplated what she was about to suggest.

"I think you should tell her."

"What?" Shock didn't do her expression justice.

Yuffie bounced up and took over the pacing where Elena left off.

"Tell her. That way, it isn't a secret anymore. You won't have to worry about Reno telling her, or holding it over you in any way." She paused, gathering her courage. "And it will give Tifa a chance to acknowledge your feelings. Who knows; maybe she'll feel the same way." Gaia forbid that happen! Yuffie was hoping her next suggestion would be the more likely solution. "Or, if she doesn't, you'll be able to move on instead of keeping all those feelings locked away." And if that happened, Yuffie planned on being dead center in Elena's path as she moved on.

Elena stared at the floor, thinking over Yuffie's advice. She was right; there was no way to feel comfortable about any of this without confronting it. She nodded, wondering why it couldn't be easier. Hell, having a crush on…Tseng…would be easier to deal with than this.

Tifa's eyes rounded completely as did her mouth in a silent 'oh', and her finger stopped stroking his cheek as her brain scrambled to come up with a logical explanation why he would ask her such a thing. She blushed as the first thing that came to her mind was that Reno wanted to indulge some fantasy she didn't know about involving her and another woman, or perhaps all three of them. She was ashamed that was her first thought while, at the same time, thinking 'oh, hell no'.

Reno watched the color fill her face and misread it entirely, taking it to be an affirmative to a question that she probably had never expected to be asked, more or less have to answer. The possibilities that opened up had him backing away from her, sliding to sit on the floor, leaning back on the couch.

"Reno!" She leaned forward, putting her hand on his shoulder. What in Gaia had gotten into him?

"It's okay, Tifa. I shouldn't have asked. Whatever's past is past. It's your life, and if that's what you wanted, it's none of my business."

"What are you talking about, Reno? You didn't even let me answer the question."

"You didn't need to. The answer…"

"…is no."

He whipped around to stare at her, not sure he believed it.

"Never?"

"Never." It was the strangest conversation they had ever had, but Tifa sensed that this was important to Reno for some reason and was the key to finding out what was bothering him.

"Have you ever thought about it?"

"No." Oh how she hoped this wasn't going where she had first thought it was going.

"Would you ever be interested in dating another woman?"

What?

Tifa slid down to sit next to him.

"Why are you asking me this, Reno?"

He rolled his head back and side to side, trying to relieve the knot of muscle that was his neck. How was he going to explain this one? He couldn't help but ask, but he hadn't thought far enough ahead to think he might have to explain. Ah, what the hell.

"I heard a rumor, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, wondering if that might be something you might be interested in if you knew they liked you. You know, if it was someone you never expected it from, never thought you had a chance with."

The relief that flooded through her was much more profound than the seed of curiosity that had been planted. Now that she knew what he was really asking her, she could get to the bottom of this.

"Reno, it doesn't matter what other people think or feel. I can't help that. What matters is what I feel. If I was interested in someone else, I'd have made that known, and I've done that. I'm with the person I want to be with, and trust me, nobody I know," and she was assuming she knew this person, "elicits the same feelings in me that you do." The last she said as she gently squeezed his thigh just above his knee, an intentional gesture that could be taken as both friendly and suggestive. It wasn't only his seductive charm she loved; it was the walks in the rain, how he loved to puddle-jump, how he held her as they counted the stars at night. How he casually wrapped himself around her, no matter where they were, and had a way of making her feel safe and loved.

Lacing his fingers with hers, Reno gifted her with one of his most genuine smiles.

"I should have known better than to bring it up. You and I are good, huh, Lockhart?"

She nudged his shoulder with hers.

"We're better than good." Reno wasn't convinced of that yet, but Tifa was waiting patiently for him to get there.

"You're not mad at me because I asked?"

"Mad?" Tifa's laughter released her tension. "Are you kidding? I'm relieved. For a second there, I thought you had some strange fantasy in mind that you wanted to act out, watching me with another girl or something."

Tifa glanced up after a rather long silence and winced as she read Reno's thoughts from his expression as clearly as if he had spoken them, and his thoughts looked something like "Damn, why didn't I think of that?"

Tifa spent most of the night and the next day trying to puzzle out who Reno could have been talking about. It came down to one of two people, so when she opened the door later that afternoon in response to the bell, she was pretty sure she knew why Elena was standing on her doorstep.

"Hey Tifa. I need to, ummm, talk to you about something."

Tifa played dumb. Reno hadn't told her it was Elena, and she wasn't going to give Elena any reason to think he had betrayed her confidence. She invited Elena in, and they sat out in the back yard as Elena confessed her feelings for Tifa. It was strange, Tifa thought, that Elena could have these feelings for her. Though they knew each other, and even spent some time together in a casual way, they had never been the best of friends, and the only thing they really had in common was Reno. But stranger things had happened. After all, Tifa was dating Reno.

Elena, for her part, recognized her feelings for what they were, a crush, and had never fostered the expectation that they would be returned, but knew that after her drunken admission, the truth had to be told.

It was an awkward conversation, of that there was no doubt. If Elena hadn't known before that Tifa was happy with Reno, she did now. Not that she had been harboring the illusion that Tifa was going to drop everything to pursue a relationship, or even a friendship with her, but the hard knowledge of it was eye-opening.

Thankfully, Tifa wasn't mean about it. Rather, she was quite understanding and sympathetic, though very clear about her lack of feelings for Elena. Conversation over, a delicate silence ensued, and Tifa walked Elena to the door, giving her a friendly hug and a smile as proof things would not be strained between them.

Elena walked back to her car, and dropped down into the driver's seat, feeling better and worse at the same time for having made her feelings known. Her cell phone chirruped and she checked the picture id of her caller before answering. At the image of Yuffie in an arrogant pose in that silly cloak, holding up a ball of materia, a smile lit up her face and she immediately felt better, her day looking brighter. Yuffie, she realized, would know what to do to make her smile. Yuffie always knew.

And it would only be a matter of time before Elena figured out what that realization really meant, and that the someone special she had been searching for was a lot closer than she had ever thought.