A/N: I don't care how you interpret this time-wise. It could be anywhere in KH2. Think of all those times Yuffie AND Axel weren't there. I couldn't just shoot this bunny. Don't worry, I'm not dead. I have surprises in store for you, yet.
The first time Yuffie saw Axel, her heart soared for a tiny instant, sprouting wings and flying away from her, but then the wax wings melted and it fell, realizing that it had never been flying at all, only jumping from the top of the highest skyscraper.
She wanted to run to him, leap into a flying tackle and knock him bodily to the ground. She wanted to crush her mouth to his until they died from lack of oxygen. She wanted to cry into his shirt while he stroked her hair and muttered nonsense in her ear, like they used to late at night. She wanted to shriek his name and smile until her teeth fell out.
But then she realized that it wasn't him.
He had the same hair color, and it still looked like someone had gone and cemented a dead fox to his head, but there was no haphazard, greasy trailer park ponytail. It looked less like someone had hung him upside down and dipped his hair in glue and more like someone had stood him in front of a fan and used ten cans of hair spray on him. The goggles had disappeared, and new markings filled the absence of his old red, crescent-shaped scars. His eyes were still that luminescent green, they were still slanted, giving either the impression of cunning or constant laughter, and he still had that haphazard, reckless grin. She noticed that he had discarded the EMR in favor of something a little more…heated.
She hesitated approaching him on the few times that she saw him and her friends weren't around. She knew it was him, just knew that there was something of Reno in there. She didn't care if she had to smack him around a little bit with her shurikens or knock on his head, she would find it in there somehow.
One day, walking idly around Radiant Garden, he appeared before her, staring at her silently. She noticed that he looked slightly undernourished, with narrow hips that she realized with odd fascination that she wanted to grab and squeeze, like she used to with Reno.
She stared back at him, lifting one silent eyebrow in question. The only reason she hadn't gone to someone, clanging the alarm bells screaming "ORGANIZATION XIII FREAKS! GET 'EM!" was because there were some things she needed to know, no matter how bad Sora wanted to get at these people.
He, apparently, decided to jump-start the conversation. "Why aren't you raising cane about me yet? I'm the bad guy, remember?"
She smirked. "Not quite. Maybe a little off sometimes, but you've never been the bad guy, Reno."
He frowned. "There is no Reno anymore. It's just Axel."
She scowled. "No, you're Reno all right. So, what happened to the shocky-stick? Got bored with electricity and decided to give into your inner pyromania? Reno, didn't your mother ever tell you that if you play with fire, you'll only get burned?"
He just stared at her blankly.
Her scowl deepened, and she wanted to scream. He was Reno! He was, he was, he WAS! He had to be Reno, or else she feared she would lose it. This hope was the only thing she had left. She had grasped at this hope for so many years, and at the sight of that flaming red hair and those cat-like green eyes, it had sprouted and blossomed, taking root in her soul and inflaming it. If it were to die, the co-dependence between Yuffie and Hope would end, and there would be no more Yuffie left.
"You are Reno, and I'll prove it to you."
She did what she had wanted to do. She rushed forward and in three smooth strides she had grasped those perfectly narrow little hips and plunged her tongue down his throat, stroking his own with hers. He growled low, a rumbling deep in his chest and responded to her, making her burn, but it wasn't what Reno had always made her feel. Reno was a lightning bolt, crackling through her like electricity, like shockwaves, making her tingle and cry out and quiver. Axel was eating away at her, burning her like fire, transforming her into something she wanted and yet desperately prayed not to be: ashes. It ended, and they pulled back merely inches from each other, panting, staring.
Yuffie shook her head sadly, pulling out of his arms and stepping safely away. Even though he made her burn, she looked to his eyes and saw nothing of what she had hoped for. There was no Reno, and Yuffie was dead inside once more, covered in melted wax and singed feathers.
Axel stared at her for a moment, licking his swollen lips. "I told you there is no Reno."
She nodded. "I believe you."
And with that, he opened a door to darkness and stepped away, dissolving in a cloud of black flames.
Yuffie shook her head and decided to go home to sleep, cry, and possibly eat buckets of ice cream while Leon rolled his eyes and cleaned his blade.
As if from another time, another world, another place, another life, another Yuffie, came a tendril of thought, a tiny wisp of dream.
Sly green eyes gazed down at her, laughter twinkling at the heart of them. She punched the redhead's firm chest, smiling slightly at the resounding thump it made. To cover the smile, she poked out her tongue.
"Hey, Yuff, unless you're gonna do somethin' with that tongue, you might wanna put it back in your mouth, before I do something with it." He smirked at her.
"Reno!" she squealed as he pinched her bottom.
"Why, Yuffie," he said coyly, bringing his face inches from her own, making her blush red, "didn't your mother ever tell you? If you play with fire, you'll only get burned."