Disclaimer: Don't Own Anything
It was a quiet night, and Yuffie was still tossing and turning in her bedroll. Despite her plan to make it Cosmo Canyon with one full day of running, three days had passed and she was still sleeping in her tent halfway between Corel and the Canyon. Some kind of fever had managed to battering-ram its way through her usually undefeatable immune system and now she was flip-flopping between shivering so hard her teeth hurt and sweating out her entire body mass.
"I wonder… what would happen…if I died before finding the thing… and not anywhere near… open Lifestream… Tif probly wouldn't come back and then Cloud would go off himself and then Vincent would too out of remorse for his comrades and then Cid would too cuz they're BFFs for life and then Shera would 'cause she wouldn't want to raise Cid's potty mouthed kids alone and then Barrett would just because like…coal would be all depleted and stuff and then Denzel and Marlene would have to get together and make babies and repopulate the world with awesome people because everyone would be dead. Except Red, but he'd be too busy doing scholarly, researchful things to even notice we all died." Yuffie had taken up the habit of talking to herself. "That would totally suck."
The night passed slowly and agonizingly. She really should have been used to it at this point, as it had been going on for the past two nights, but the illness in her body was painful and just horrible. Yuffie hated being sick. She eventually drifted into a fitful sleep, and morning found her, panting outside of her bedroll in nothing but a bra, panties and one striped sock. Her body had finally decided to stick to the heat, and she felt like her skin was crisping over. Through her sweaty delirium, she heard whistling. And then, she heard a tap on the canvas or her tent. And then she heard the one voice she so did not want to hear when all she was wearing was her underwear. Reno.
"Princeeeeesssssss….oh Princess! Wakey-wakey…"
"Shut the fuck up, and leave me alone!" The ninja managed to rasp out. Against her commands, the Turk decided to do the exact opposite, and unzipped the front of her tent to peer in.
"You sound terrible, Princess…" He took in her appearance with his trademark smirk. "You look smokin' though."
Yuffie was not in the mood. "Oh gag me! I am smoking… smoking and burning up from the inside out! So if you don't have any water than just leave me here to die in peace!" She rolled onto her side and curled up protectively.
The man surveyed her with a curious glance. "You sick, Yuffs?"
"Why the fuck do you think I'm lying here sweating and sounding like an old man prostitute who's given way too many blowjobs? Of course I'm sick, or I'd be in Cosmo like I planned!"
"Oh? And what would you know about blowjobs, Princess?"
"Reno. I will cut your penis off if you don't shut it and give me some water."
And finally, like the nice guy that was buried somewhere within his smoke-filled chest and corroded heart (at least that's how Yuffie chose to see it in her fevered moments); Reno drew a bottle of water from his pack, unscrewed it and tipped it up over Yuffie's lips. She gulped at it greedily, and looked up at him with pleading eyes when she had emptied the bottle.
"Nuh-uh. No more until we start sweating out this fever. Get in your bedroll."
"But…but I don't wannaaaaaa!" Yuffie whined outwardly as she cringed inwardly at the thought of adding more heat to her body.
"Do it. Or do I have to make you?" Reno was fully inside her tent now, and before she knew it she was in his arms as he unzipped her sleeping bag before gently placing her inside and zipping her in tight.
When she thrashed, he held her down. When she bit at the fingers securing her, he held them steady, even when blood began to seep from between her clenched teeth. When she begged for water, he'd brush her hair back and slowly dribble it between her lips, between those same teeth that had left their marks on the fingers now quenching their thirst. The hours passed and neither slept, Yuffie due to the flames coiling and thrashing within her and Reno to stop the strong-willed woman from slicing her way out of her sleeping bag.
It was around ten that night when Yuffie's fever finally broke. She grew still in her bedroll as her hair lay damp and sticky around her face. Her eyes glistened in the dark as she looked at Reno, lips slightly parted and a slight sigh of breath escaping between them. He ran a hand through her hair as he gave her a few more sips of water, trying to ignore the way she looked. It looked as though she were basking in the afterglow of sex and it almost unnerved him to suddenly be thinking those kinds of thoughts about the petite ninja. He was a man, after all, and he knew all the ways she could bend and what he exactly he could do to her if he had those long legs of hers wrapped around his waist. He was jerked from his lusting reverie by a hand squeezing his.
"Thank you, Reno." It was whispered once, and then she was asleep.
Yuffie woke from her first truly restful sleep in a week to the smell of pancakes burning and the sun blinding her through her open tent flap. With a slight groan she sat up and wriggled out of her sleeping bag. She scrounged for a clean pair of clothes before stepping out into the bright morning. The sight in front of her almost made her laugh, except she was a bit confused by it.
Reno was crouched in front of a small campfire with a pan in hand and trying (failing) to flip the two pancakes cooking (burning) inside. Muttered curses hissed from between his teeth and Yuffie couldn't hold the giggles in any longer.
"What are you doing, Turkey?"
He turned an icy glare on her. "What the fuck does it look like I'm doing? Trying to make breakfast before we starve out here."
The young woman sighed and shoved him out of the way. "Is your insane hair like, taking over your brain or something? They're burned already so just let me do this."
Five minutes and way too much syrup later, the unlikely duo were cringing their way through the burnt pancakes and making little conversation. Unsurprisingly, it was Yuffie who broke the silence.
"What are you even doing out here?"
"Looking for you, of course." Reno winked. "Barrett called Red after two days to see if you'd gotten there, and when you hadn't he was going to come looking for you. I didn't have anything better to do once I reported to Rufus, and I'm sick of hanging around HQ just watching everyone make gaga eyes at each other."
Yuffie was surprised. She had thought Reno's little fit in the Mines might've just been man PMS. "That bad?"
"That bad." He was solemn.
"Geeeeez! I am so sorry, Turkey… that sounds almost as bad as the one Christmas that Vinnie ditched me to brood and be emo in his mansion, and I was stuck with Cid and Shera, and Barrett and whoever he was dating then and Cloud and…Tif."
There was always that short pause before anyone said the martial artist's name, almost as if they weren't sure whether to remember her and deal with the pain or erase her from the memory and continue on happily oblivious.
Yuffie's eyes dimmed and then brightened. "Gawd, that was AWFUL… it just kept reminding me of how I have no one. I mean, if Vincent was there it wouldn't have been that much better, but I could've at least pestered him until he threatened to shoot me. Instead I was stuck with a group of people who were more preoccupied at ending up under the mistletoe together than actually….like having a party."
Reno grimaced along with her. "Sounds like the office… I walked in to report to Tseng once and I swear to Leviathan, I never needed to hear sounds like that in my entire life. I still have nightmares."
Yuffie shuddered along with him before laughing. "OhmyGAWD! Most awkward moment of my life! I go to visit at the bar, and the whole downstairs is empty which I probably should've taken as a warning but no, me and my nosey self, I wander upstairs 'cause I had big news for Tif, I forget what it was now but anyway, I hear like…. shuffling in the other room so I go to investigate and…and…and…Cloud and Tifa…" Her eyes were wide as saucers as she choked the words out. "…sixty-nine, Turkey. It was disturbing. I'll never forget it for the rest of my life."
Reno cracked up as she finished her tale, his snickering growing louder as a memory struck him. "Princess, I had to get a new desk last year. Not because I had done anything bad to my old one or because it broke or anything but I walked in on… Rude and Elena, doggy-style, on top of it."
"What the fuck! Couldn't they use his desk?!" Yuffie was extremely horrified and insanely amused at the same time.
"Apparently not! I was traumatized for months and I made Rude pay for the new desk."
Yuffie gave him a skeptical look. "How do I know you didn't deserve that, Fire Top? I mean… everybody knows you've had many sexploits yourself."
Reno scoffed at that. "Silly Yuff. When I take a woman home, I romance her." He winked at the end.
"Ha! Yeah, you romance them for one night and then what? Go to the doctor and get checked for gonorrhea?"
Reno sighed and just shook his head. "Shouldn't you be thanking me for putting up with your scrawny ass last night instead of calling me a manwhore?"
"I thanked you last night, and you should be thankful that you even got a 'thank you'!"
"You make no sense."
"Life's more fun that way. And I fully intend to live my life having fun and making no sense whatsoever!" Seeing as I don't have much time left anyway. Yuffie's eyes grew wide as that hit her. It had been the first time she'd thought about her sacrifice since Reno had arrived. It made her almost grateful for him, at least he provided a nice distraction, no matter how obnoxiously flirtatious he was.
"Weirdo. Anyway…what business you got in Cosmo, Princess?" His drawling voice removed the ninja from her reverie.
"Well…I needed to get out of Edge I guess, so I'm making the rounds, seeing everyone… ya know. It's been a couple weeks and I think we all need a little comfort with each other when we can get it. If that…makes sense?"
"It does. Doesn't explain what you're looking for though."
"What?"
"Barrett told me."
"Oh…" Yuffie flushed, a little unsure of how to respond. "I told him I didn't really know what it was. Just feeling a pull to find something. One last adventure, ya know?" A sly glint entered into her stormy eyes. "You aren't gonna offer to come with me, are you? Trying to escape the office for even longer?"
"Are you inviting me?"
"Are you saying you wanna come?"
"If it's gonna be more entertaining than the office."
And for some reason, Yuffie found herself saying yes. Yes, Reno could come with her on her suicide mission, only she left that part out. Part of it was sympathy. Yuffie knew what it was like to be surrounded by happy couples; even though Vinnie and his obsession with a dead chick didn't count as happy it had still killed her spirits when she used to have a thing for him. The other part of it was a bit selfish. Reno did a damn good job of distracting her from the morbid thoughts, and Yuffie couldn't deal with that mindset for much longer or she'd go crazy. So even if he drove her near insane with his jokes and suggestive comments, he kept her sane on a more serious level. Yuffie needed that sanity.
Half a day later, the Turk and Ninja pair found themselves on the outskirts of the great Canyon. Red was pacing at the entrance and a wolfish smile appeared on his face when he saw the two of them.
"There you are! I was beginning to think you weren't planning on showing up at all." Yuffie dropped her bags in the dust and sprinted up the stairs to wrap her friend in a tight hug, burying her face in his mane.
"Of course I'd show up! You're only one of my bestest buddies, ever! I'd never bail on you Red!" He chuckled in her ear as she let him go.
"I've got a room all set up for you, facing the sunrise. I know it's your favorite." Yuffie smiled, blinking back a sudden rush of emotion. She loved her friends. She was going to miss them.
Red XIII was suddenly hesitant. "Only…I wasn't expecting Reno to be with you, so you'll have to share until we can get a room set up for him as well."
Reno chose that moment to reach the top of the stairs. "Sweet! We can share a room and have nasty, kinky sex all night long, Princess!!"
Even as Yuffie punched him in the arm and stomped on his foot, she knew she'd even miss the loudmouth Turk as well.
(AN: This chapter was quite a process…. It took me maybe a week to plan in my head, and then try and write and then it changed completely from what it was originally going to be. But that's alright. And for some reason I LOVE the whole sexual undertones of the first part, which wasn't planned at all. It was a nice, unexpected bit XD Anyway! On to reviewers! Thanks so much to: strawberrysodapop, Darkened-Skys, koalababay, starbrightdreamer, and Kaikai PANTS!!! Keep it up, I love hearing from all of you! XD And I apologize for any typos….Lo siento.)