Reno sat on the couch in the living room, staring at the fire, while Tifa put Christmas dinner away and did the dishes. He would have helped put her dinner away, because it was dark out and snowing and she was pregnant with his child, but the root cellar entrance was just on the side of the house. And Reno needed some time to process things…if it had been a different woman, he'd demand a paternity test. But he knew Tifa well enough that if she said it was his child, it was, because if she could be faithful to Cloud for all those years while waiting for him to want to be with her, she would certainly be faithful to him while he was gone for a while on business, even if they only had that one night together. But he was still going to be a father!
"Okay, that's all done." Tifa's voice interrupted his thoughts, coming into the living room with a platter of two steaming mugs of cocoa and Christmas cookies on it. She put the platter down on the coffee table and handed a mug to Reno before sitting down next to him with her own mug. "It's coming down hard out there. We might be snowed in for a few days if this keeps up overnight." Tifa spoke from experience as she sipped her cocoa.
"You mean we can't leave the house?" Reno had been trapped before, but that was during missions where luck aided him in getting out alive. Being stuck somewhere because of the weather didn't make sense to him, unless it was like a hurricane or something.
"We can go outside, but only to the barn and coop to take care of the animals, or to the root cellar for food. Oh and to bring in firewood from the porch, but…oh!" Tifa suddenly cried out.
"What's wrong?" Reno asked.
"Nothing's wrong." Tifa grabbed his hand and put it on her belly which had only recently started to bulge out. "Someone else is glad you're home."
Reno felt the movements and wanted to pull his hand away, but he couldn't. That was his child in there. He smiled as he felt the evidence that the baby was obviously a feisty one. Tifa smiled at his expression as he felt their child greet him.
"Welcome home." she said, and kissed him. She had meant it to be a simple platonic gesture, since despite the fact that they were legally married with a child on the way, they really didn't know each other all that well. But their bodies' reaction to that kiss was anything but platonic.
"The baby…" Reno protested, even though he had been looking forward to being with her again. His homecoming wasn't what he expected it to be.
"It's perfectly safe as long as we're careful." Tifa reassured him as she started unbuttoning his shirt. The idea of her husband making love to her in front of the fire with a blizzard outside on Christmas suddenly became irresistible to her.
If we had been careful the first time, Tifa wouldn't be pregnant now. Reno thought as he helped her out of her holiday dress. He was gentle enough that they were both surprised by the intensity of their reunion. Tifa felt herself explode over and over again amongst the stars, until she reluctantly came back down to Earth, where Reno was trying to catch his breath. He hadn't expected having sex with her again to be as intense as the first time just before he left.
"Welcome home." Tifa repeated with a smile.
"It's good to be home." Reno said as they curled up in each other's arms and fell asleep.
Tifa woke up the next morning feeling a little cold, and realized the fire had gone out, and she and Reno were naked on the couch. She tried to carefully extricate herself from him so he could sleep in, but he woke up anyway.
"If you'll restart the fire, I'll start coffee and breakfast." Tifa told him as she hurriedly got her holiday dress back on. Reno nodded as he put his clothes back on.
As she got the cookstove going, Tifa thought about his homecoming. She was glad to have him back, but she wouldn't lie to herself. She didn't love Reno. She cared for him, but it wasn't love, not yet. They were technically a married couple, and she was expecting their first child, but they still didn't know each other that well. Tifa wasn't worried though, it wasn't that hard to play his loving wife, and then one day she would wake up and realize she wasn't playing anymore, because she really did love him.
Reno felt glad there was something he was capable of doing around the farm. But he didn't need any stupid matches…he grabbed his weapon out of his suitcase and aimed it at the logs, activating the taser. He smiled with delight at the flames, then he heard Tifa call out that coffee was ready.
As Reno sat down at the kitchen table, he fervently hoped that she never found out that the first month he was gone, he had started picking up women in bars again. But he had given up, because he always ended up feeling guilty, and confused as to why he felt guilty. Then he would end up feeling pain as the women would get pissed off at his callous behavior the next morning and he got quite a few slaps and one black eye. Eventually he had figured out it was because of Tifa, and that was one of the reasons he had called in a favor to get them retroactively married, their wedding day now officially the day she moved in. If he couldn't sleep with other women, he might as well be married. He was glad he had done it now that he knew he had gotten her pregnant.
"Scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon for the man of the house." Tifa said, putting his plate down in front of him, before going back to counter for her plate.
Reno just stared at her breakfast. There were pancakes, eggs, toast, hash browns, sausage links, and bacon on her plate. "Are you going to eat all that?"
"No, they're eating most of it, I'm just the messenger." Tifa said as she patted her stomach, then she heard scratching at the front door.
"Oh, would you please let the puppies back in?" she asked her husband. "I had to let them out onto the porch because there's too much snow out the back here. We're gonna have to shovel paths out to the barn and coop to take care of the animals after breakfast."
"I'll clear the paths. I don't want you getting hurt." Reno said before going to let Miss Fit and Miss Chievous back into the house, who followed him back into the kitchen. They instant went to the kitten box that Tifa had put near the cookstove so they could stay warm.
"No!" Tifa exclaimed when she heard the kittens trying to hiss at the intruders. The puppies instantly stopped and came over to the kitchen table, wagging their tails, where she petted both of them and told them they were good girls.
"How'd you get them to do that?" Reno asked.
"It's called training." Tifa smiled as she sipped her tea. The dogs were a lot easier to train than Reno was proving to be for farm life, but she was in a position to persevere.
