A/N: Rated M for sexual content.

Chapter 17:

Sunday

Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap.

The rain was still falling pretty heavily outside when Tifa's eyes begrudgingly fluttered open. Her eyes felt strained and puffy, as if her eyelids were telling her to just close them again. The sky outside cast a cool gray light over her bedroom – enough to see, but not enough to lift her spirits. At least today was her day off.

She opened the bar on Sundays during soccer season to lure patrons in to watch the games, taking Tuesday off instead (Monday: Monday, Wednesday: Hump day, Thursday: Almost Friday). It was the only day she could spend cleaning her home, which wasn't very messy due to her ongoing regimen of tidiness, taking stock of supplies, running errands, and, if she were lucky, taking a few minutes to herself.

Her body ached from being pressed into a hardwood floor, and her nipples were sore from Reno's attention.

Reno…

What the hell had she allowed him to do to her? She felt as though she had been drunk and made a bad decision – she certainly felt hungover, but it was not from alcohol. It was from guilt, shame, and the loneliness that had cropped back up into her heart. Being with Reno always seemed to create a whirlwind of emotions in her, both good and bad. She found herself missing him, wishing he were lying next to her. No, that wasn't it, she just missed not being alone.

Reno had not only touched and looked at her in a way she hadn't experienced in months, but he had also simply been there. In a strange, unexplainable way, Tifa's guilt over cheating on Cloud – wait, could it really be called "cheating" if she hadn't even heard from him in over a month? – made it feel like he was in the room with her. Not in a literal sense, but as though he were omnipresent, like a God, just enveloping the entire bar. It made her feel less alone than she had felt in a long time, as if she were with both Cloud and Reno at the same time. Not like that, it was merely the feeling that they were both in the room and they both cared for her.

Except it seemed like neither of them cared for her.

And now she felt more alone than ever. They were both gone. Reno had only been gone a few hours but she had this overwhelming urge to see him again and to have him hold her.

She turned to her right, to look at the side of the bed where Cloud used to sleep. Despite the size, she only ever slept on one side of the bed anyway and hadn't wanted to cover up Cloud's… essence (again, not like that) that emanated from his side. If she were to sleep there, it would be like this was just her bed and not their bed. It would mean he was truly gone.

She needed to get both these boys out of her head. She sat up and rubbed her forehead, feeling a matted chunk of hair that had been hanging down over her face. She had gone to bed with her hair wet and unbrushed, and she would pay for it today.

She also at that moment realized that she forgot to brush her teeth the night before, even after her desperate trip to the general store for toothpaste. Perhaps if she hadn't run her errand and gotten soaked in the rain, things wouldn't have happened the way they did. No, that wasn't likely, since Reno would have been waiting for her whether she was dry or wet. He had clearly come to her home with an agenda that night and she didn't think a dry top would have changed things.

She got out of bed and stretched her arms up over her head and then rotated them forward and back behind her, clasping her fingers and arching her back. She moved through her morning exercises – it might be her day off, but she had to keep her skills up for the now multi-daily monster attacks.

She showered again after working up a sweat, again trying to scrub the guilt from her skin. She finally gave up and exited the shower to look at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were less red and puffy, but her eyelids were heavy and her expression practically despondent. She decided to lay back down. Maybe the next time she woke up she'd feel better.

No sooner had her head hit the pillow did her phone vibrate. At first she thought that maybe it was a text, possibly from Reno. Either way, she didn't want to read it right now. But when it buzzed again she realized it was a phone call, and lazily grabbed it off her bedside table and brought it to her ear that wasn't sunken into the pillow.

"Hello?" she asked groggily.

"Yo, Girl! How ya been?" she heard Barret's booming voice through the phone.

She was glad to hear her friend's voice, but that first word he said – "yo" – was definitely not a word she wanted to hear right now.

"Good," she lied in response.

"Glad to hear it! Listen, I was thinking of coming to Edge next weekend. Marlene's been beggin' to see her Aunt Tifa," Barret said.

Tifa sat up, her wet mass of hair falling over her shoulder as she cradled the phone to her ear.

"Really?" she asked. Seeing her old friend and his wonderful little girl might be just the thing to perk her up. Besides, it would definitely give her something to look forward to.

"Yeah! The monsters are getting worse in Corel and Kalm. Marlene was hoping you could teach her some fighin' moves."

"I'd love to," Tifa agreed.

"Great! We'll be in town Friday night. See ya then!"

Tifa closed her PHS and set it back on the nightstand. She hadn't seen Barret in a while. He had visited back when Cloud's headaches were first starting, but Cloud was still in a pretty good mood back then and took Barret's teasing in stride.

Tifa stared off into space, thoughtfully. Marlene was six now; precocious and inquisitive. Tifa worried about the questions the little girl would ask when she realized Cloud was no longer around. Tifa dreaded that conversation. For adults, she would just repeat the answers she had given Vincent when he came to ask her to accompany him to Nibelheim, but a child like Marlene wouldn't accept those responses. How many "whys" would it take to make Tifa cry?

Flashback…

Cloud and Tifa were sitting on the floor of the bar drinking the night before the furniture was supposed to arrive. They were already several drinks in each and laughing over the old days.

"Hey, let me ask you something," Cloud said, using his drink to motion toward Tifa.

"Shoot," she responded, still laughing from their last discussion.

"Remember back when we were young…"

"We're still young, Cloud."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Remember way back when, when you came with us to blow up the reactor?"

Tifa didn't like where she thought this conversation was going. The old days were one thing, but anything relating to the time surround Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie's deaths was another.

"Yeah…" she said, tepidly.

"Okay, so like," Cloud was just a bit drunk, "we all left, right? And we just… we just left Marlene in charge of the bar!"

Tifa had always kicked herself for that. What on earth was she thinking?

"I know!" she exclaimed, too drunk to really feel the guilt. "Who leaves a four-year-old in charge of a bar?"

"And she accepted it," Cloud said, ending his sentence with a burp. "She was back there slinging drinks as soon as you asked her to watch the place!"

"I know!" Tifa was laughing uncontrollably at this point.

She never had this conversation with anyone, and certainly never expected it to be in a lighthearted sort of way. Yet here she was with Cloud, laughing about the time they flagrantly and stupidly ignored child labor laws.

"Did the slums have any rules about children working?" Cloud asked.

"There are no rules in the slums, Cloud," Tifa said in a seductive tone, leaning back on her hands and letting her chest rise a bit.

"We would be such terrible parents," Cloud responded, getting on his hands and knees to crawl to Tifa.

"We'd be terrible," Tifa said, still in that low and sensual tone.

Cloud now had an arm on either side of Tifa's chest and was closing the gap between their lips.

"So terrible," he practically whispered before he kissed her.

They made love on the floor of the bar that night. Drunk, sloppy, love.

Present day…

Tifa sighed at the memory. Marlene was surely better at "slinging drinks" now, she joked to herself. She left her bed once again and picked up a framed photo from her dresser. It was one of her most prized possessions, a photo from years ago of her, Cloud, Barret, Marlene, Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie. Cloud clearly didn't want his picture taken ("This just seems like evidence, to me" he sulked at the time), Barret had Marlene propped up on his shoulder, and Tifa and the others had their arms around each other's' waists and were smiling.

She sighed. Everything seemed so possible back then. They were taking on the world without really considering the consequences. She ran her fingers over the image, closing her eyes tight and wishing that they would all be standing in front of her when she opened them. It never worked.

They were dead.

And Reno killed them.

She put the picture back down and choked back some tears. She needed to remind herself why she hated that flame-haired Turk, even if he didn't seem like he was still the type of person to kill a large portion of a major city. Cuahls never changed their spots, after all.

She put on some clothes and then spent time getting the guest room ready for Barret and Marlene's visit, though it didn't need much work. No one had used it in nearly six months, so all it really needed was some dusting.

She then moved downstairs to clean the bar. The wood floors had absorbed the water she and Reno had brought in with them last night, but she didn't get a chance to clean up after she closed the bar early for her date with Rude. Closing early on a Saturday night definitely wasn't good for business, but Tifa didn't really need the money. She and Cloud had sold a couple "All" materias after Cid left them in Nibelheim in order to buy some property. They ended up using it to pay the people who helped build the bar and apartment in Edge and had plenty left over to live off of for the rest of their days if they wanted to. But Tifa couldn't just sit still the rest of her life. She wanted a home and a… family… but she also wanted something that was her own. The bar in the slums brought in decent business, and she believed she could do even better if she could design a bar herself in a good location.

And Seventh Heaven was doing well. Better than she ever expected, although a good chunk of it was thanks to the Turks' expensive drinking habits and generous tips (well, Rude's generous tips).

She placed the chairs on top of the tables and polished the bar after running the dishwasher. She dusted and polished the liquor bottles and made sure they were all facing forward. She would go over everything again tomorrow before opening time, but she felt a need to do it now as well.

Whenever she would take trash out to the dumpsters, she would still be cautious, just in case Reno was hanging around. She definitely did not want to see him today.

Once her chores were done, she curled up on the couch with a novel until it was time to go back to bed. This night, she spent quite a while untangling her hair before crawling into bed.

Monday

Tifa woke up in a better mood today. The sun was finally out and she was one day closer to seeing Barret and Marlene. She was already starting to think about what they could do that didn't require a lot of time outside walking since the streets were too dangerous. Of course, battling monsters would be much easier with Barret around, but she didn't want to take the chance of Marlene getting hurt.

They wouldn't be able to stay cooped up inside all weekend, but there were a few places nearby – like the ice cream shop – that they could get to relatively easy.

She hopped out of bed and performed her morning exercises and some stretches. She would surely have to fight something today. She had been too depressed yesterday to check the monster situation, but today she was ready.

She stepped into the shower and let the warm water wake her up. She ran her fingers through her hair (as best she could) while washing, thinking she could be in a shampoo commercial. She finally felt clean after this shower and wrapped a towel around her body as she stepped out onto her bathroom rug. She took a second towel and wrapped it around her head and some of her hair but her tresses were so long they spilled out from the back of her wrap. She strolled over to her mirror to see that she was looking much more like herself today. Her eyes were open and brighter and the dark circles under her eyes were gone.

She didn't even dread seeing Reno later when the bar would be open. She assumed he would be there with Rude to tease her and gloat. She just hoped Rude wouldn't find out about her little tryst – no, let's not call it a tryst – with Reno. It would hurt him no matter when it happened, but having it happen right after their date had to be extra cruel.

How could she have done that?

She was trapped between feeling guilty and exhilarated. She hadn't thought that she missed sexual activity, but now that she had some, she couldn't believe it had been so long.

But it was Reno!

She got dressed and tidied up her home before traveling down to the bar.

Thump, thump, thump.

Tifa knew what that sound meant. She grabbed her gloves and headed out her front door to find some grashtrikes slithering through the streets, hitting buildings with their tails. Tifa kicked the one that had just been thumping against her bar, sending the creature flying into the air and down the street. Its screech grabbed the attention of the others, which turned toward Tifa and began advancing on her.

She psyched herself up and charted her path. She ran up to the closest creature and jumped up, bouncing off of its head to reach the next creature and doing the same. She continued this staggered "walk" over one more grashtrike before performing a somersault kick on the last remaining one. By the time she landed back on the ground, they were all dead.

Tifa walked back into her bar to prepare for opening. The bar was already clean, but she had her opening ritual: Mop the floors, polish the bar, dust and straighten the liquor bottles, re-rack any stray glasses, place the chairs, and clean the tabletops. In that order. Every night.

It was just about time to turn on the "Open" sign.

She smiled when Rude came in that night but couldn't help but be a little confused that Reno wasn't with him. She had prepared herself to act casual around the sharp-tongued Turk and any barbs he might throw her way regarding Saturday night. She shook it off and smiled at Rude.

"Welcome back," she said as cheerfully as possible before placing his usual drink in front of him.

"Thanks," Rude replied.

So, that's how it was going to be. She actually took comfort in the fact that things had gone back to normal between them. She had worried the night would be weird, but Rude was his usual quiet self. Of course, Tifa didn't know what was going on in his head.

She assumed Reno was either waiting for her out back or trying to toy with her by making some grand entrance later. She was even prepared for him to bring another woman just to be a dick. But when she went to take out the trash he wasn't there. Elena and Tseng eventually joined Rude, but Reno never came.

After she closed up the bar, she sat down at a table to count her gil for the night. Rude had left a large tip, just like always, and Tseng drank more than usual, giving her a pretty nice profit for the day. She put some of the gil in her petty cash box and prepared the rest for the bank in the morning. It was her usual morning errand, finding that mid-morning was usually the quietest time for monster attacks.

When she finished up she climbed the stairs to her apartment above and gently fell onto her bed, closing her eyes and drifting peacefully to sleep.

Tuesday

Tifa woke up easily and went through her usual morning regimen: Stretch, work out, shower, deal with hair, go to bank, run additional errands, help build the theater, return to bar early to get ready for opening and deal with any monsters.

As she was returning home from the theater, a small herd of elfadunks could be heard wreaking havoc nearby. Tifa ran over and grabbed one by the horn, turning her back to it as she did so, and then hunched over and threw the creature up over her back and to the ground at her feet. She thought back to her fight with an elfadunk in the city several weeks earlier, when Reno had helped her out. It was the first time he showed any hint of humanity toward her. The memory also got her thinking about how he used his mag rod... on the monster, that day.

The beasts turned and ran in the opposite direction. Tifa would have chased after them, but she was blindsided by the creatures they were actually running from: A pack of kalm fangs. One lunged at her from behind, knocking her to the ground and clawing at her back. She screamed out in pain and twisted around so she could grab it by the chest. She placed a foot on its gut and pushed off to fling it behind her. It yelped as she got back to her feet. Two more jumped toward her, baring their teeth. She leapt into the air and kicked out to both sides, taking them both down. She expected more to attack, but instead their ears perked up in another direction and ran off. Tifa assumed the police were nearby.

Rude and Elena came to the bar shortly after it opened that night. Where was Reno? She knew he had to be playing some kind of game, it's what he was best at, but she was starting to wonder. Maybe he got enough from her Saturday night and was bored. Maybe it was all an act. Maybe he was disgusted by her scar… She started asking herself too many questions, and she soon found herself just wishing he would walk in the door and put her fears to rest.

Tseng joined them a little later, but again Reno didn't show. Tifa continued to act as if she didn't even notice he was gone, but inside she was dying to ask them about their red-headed partner.

After another long night, she closed up and counted her gil. She slowly walked up stairs and into her bathroom. She removed her shirt and bra and looked at herself in the mirror. What was wrong with her? Why did Cloud leave? And now Reno? Was she just not exciting enough or good enough?

She put on a nightie and fought back tears when she crawled into bed. She would not cry over Reno. She may have cried after their encounter, but that had more to do with Cloud.

Wednesday

"Same old, same old," Tifa thought when her alarm went off. Still no texts from Reno. She was again getting tempted to send him a message, something simple like a "?" and leaving it at that. But she had more self-control than that.

She stepped out of bed and performed her morning exercises. She then undressed and slipped into the shower. She turned the temperature up and stood under the hot water, examining her body for imperfections. She flexed her muscles and considered the possibility that she was too muscular. Did she look mannish? Was her hair too long? Her butt too big? Her boobs too saggy?

No, she couldn't start thinking about that. Even if her problem was physical, she didn't know what needed to be fixed. If the problem was her personality, well, there was little she could do to change that. And if that were the case, it was time for her to find someone who liked her personality.

She couldn't let these boys lower her self-esteem. Just because they didn't want her didn't mean no one wanted her. And she still wasn't convinced that they had rejected her.

She had already gone over her relationship with Cloud – all the times he told her he loved her, all the times they had sex, all the times they laughed, all the things they did together, and all the future plans they made.

Now she found herself going over her experiences with Reno. He was pursuing her. He was the one that kept showing up out of nowhere and texting her. Maybe he was waiting for her to come to him? Maybe she hadn't given him enough to keep him wanting more? That couldn't be true, he saw her half naked a few days ago, and he had that same hungry look in his eye that Cloud had when he first saw her breasts.

She just couldn't understand why Reno had gone dark.

Tifa turned the water off and wrapped a towel around her head. She grabbed her red satin short robe and put it on before approaching the mirror. Today would be the day she stopped letting boys make her doubt herself. She finished getting ready and went about her day as usual: She went to the bank, ran additional errands, helped build the theater, and then returned to the bar early to get ready for opening and dealing with any monsters that came by.

Another stampede of levrikons appeared before it was time to open. Tifa groaned and put on her gloves to run outside and start the fight. She dove shoulder-first into the first one she saw and they both tumbled to the ground. Tifa got to her feet first and crushed the bird's neck before swinging her other leg out to kick the next bird square in the chest, dropping it to the ground.

Another bird pecked at her arm as it passed, causing Tifa to wince as another creature knocked her to the ground. Angered, she began running in the opposite direction of the stampede, punching one bird, kicking the next and somersaulting back to the ground. She crouched low to the ground to sweep another bird off its feet. The bird slowed to a near stop and started limping. Tifa picked the next bird up and slammed it down to the ground. The flock was thinning out now, and she needed to finish prepping, so she dodged a couple birds to cross the street back to her bar.

Rude and Elena were later than usual. For a moment Tifa thought maybe all the Turks were on assignment and unable to come to her bar. That got her thinking that maybe Reno was on a special assignment and that was why he hadn't come into the bar all week. It was a little comforting, at least.

Tseng joined them again that night. Tifa overheard him scolding Elena about something, but she couldn't tell what about. Again, Reno never made an appearance. At this point, Tifa was pretty sure she had done something wrong and driven him away.

She ended up becoming pretty depressed about the whole thing by the time she closed the bar. As she worked to clean up, however, she started getting angry. Angry at Cloud. Angry at Reno. Especially Reno.

She would not let some murderer make her feel bad about herself. She would not sit around sulking and waiting around for him – or Cloud.

Barret and Marlene were coming in two days. She just had to make it to then before she wouldn't be alone.

Thursday

Tifa woke up with more determination than she had all week. Barret and Marlene would be here tomorrow, and she was done wondering what happened to Cloud or Reno. She hopped out of bed and gracefully eased from stretching into her martial arts training.

Today she would be her old, strong self. She showered and combed her hair, trying to think about anything other than those damn boys. She decided to wear her new – well, now a week old – outfit in order to feel good about herself. As she was rolling up her second thigh-high, her phone buzzed.

"See you tomorrow!" followed by another text: "That was from Marlene."

Tifa smiled as she walked down the stairs into the bar. She picked up the envelope of gil from the night before (kept in a hidden safe in the back room) and headed out to the bank.

She had no other errands to run today, so she went to the theater right after.

The walk home included a swarm of caesars skittering toward her. Tifa had always hated fighting any type of insect-like creature. Their carapaces broke pretty easily under her blows and she always ended up covered in their guts. She didn't want to ruin her favorite outfit, so she tried to avoid as many as she could and only hit the ones that came after her. She managed to get back home with sludge just on one arm, on her skin. She considered herself lucky.

She strolled into her bar and practically danced through her preparations. She was determined to get her life back on track now, especially since she didn't want Barret to ask too many questions about her mood.

She flicked on the "Open" sign and took her place behind the bar, smiling for what new possibilities awaited her now.

Thursday (for Reno)

It didn't matter that today was the day, Reno still hated waking up to an alarm. Why had he plugged it back in? And then set it? He stretched up to support himself on his arms and then reached for the alarm and ripped it out of the wall again.

He showed it who was boss.

He sat back on his heels and stretched, flexing the muscles on his chest and back. It was another sunny day in Edge, and things were looking bright in more ways than one. He fell back down on his bed. Maybe he could just sleep the day away and wake up when it was time to make his grand reappearance at Seventh Heaven.

Oh, that's right! He had thought of one thing he could do to really mess with her and make her think he was just the most thoughtful guy. He picked up his PHS and clicked on one of his contacts.

"Hey Shotgun!"

Click.

He called back. No answer. His eye twitched. He called again. No answer. His nostrils flared. He called again.

"WHAT?" the woman on the other end yelled.

"Heyyyy I got a favor to ask ya," Reno said quickly, holding his breath in the hopes she wouldn't hang up.

"Fuck you."

"Awww come on, for old times' sake?"

"What do you need?" Shotgun said with a heavy sigh.

It took some coaxing (and letting her curse him for a while followed by the promise of an embarrassingly large payment), but she agreed.

Reno hung up and pumped his fist in victory. He walked into the bathroom with a certain amount of swagger and removed his boxer briefs before entering his shower. He took extra care to ensure he was squeaky clean and smelling of, uh, whatever Rogue Mountain smelled like. He exited the shower and wrapped the towel around his waist as usual. He walked to the mirror and looked at the scruff growing along his chin. He rubbed a hand over it and considered growing a beard, a thought he had at least once a week. But the stubble was too sparse to leave for a day. He'd grown a beard once, long ago. It took about a week to fill in properly. He wasn't going through that again, especially not by starting today. He lathered his face and shaved carefully but thoroughly. He slapped on a little after shave (Suave Panther, which he thought may have smelled like wood chips and some kind of plant) and walked to his dresser. He slipped on a pair of dark gray boxer briefs before heading to his closet.

He pulled out a freshly pressed white dress shirt and dark blue fitted suit. He buttoned the shirt up, leaving the top three unbuttoned, and put on the suit. He selected his favorite belt (no one knew it was his favorite) and buckled it, adjusting his pants so that the buckle sat nice and low.

He finished with socks and recently shined shoes, sprayed some cologne (Spice Noir? He couldn't even guess, but it worked in the past), holstered his pistol and secured his mag rod, and then headed to work after stopping for coffee.

He realized he got to the building just half-an-hour after he was supposed to be there. Too soon, might look suspicious. He hung back and smoked a cigarette, slowly. Still too early. He finished his coffee. Not yet. He looked around for something to do for a few more minutes and spied the store that had been attacked by the hedgehog pies a couple days earlier. He could kill some time looking at trinkets.

He entered the store and coughed. It smelled of earth and some candle a woman he was sleeping with once lit by her bed. It was rather pleasant, but overwhelming. The shop had all sorts of knick knacks, an obvious tourist trap. From statues of landmarks around Edge and Midgar to tacky t-shirts and fake license plates to some artisan brand soaps, the store had something for every poor sap who was prepared to drop gil just to prove they visited the city.

And then he saw them. Had it been months ago, he might have smashed the display and threatened the owner's life. But today he found them hilarious.

Miniature bobbleheads – of all the AVALANCHE members.

"Oh. My. God," Reno said, bending over to get a closer look. There was Cloud, Barret, Vincent, Cid – even that lion thing. Some appeared less popular than others. Reno was only looking for one.

There she was.

There was only one left. He grabbed it. She'd freak out. All part of the plan.

He paid for it and buried it in his pocket before heading into work. This day just kept getting better.

"What the hell, Reno?" Elena asked when he passed her desk. "What's with that smell?"

"I smell nice," he retorted. She wasn't going to bring him down.

"It's assaulting my nostrils."

"Yes but after we patrol, it will mix with my natural manly musk –"

"Sweat," Elena interrupted.

"Natural manly musk and I'll smell like regular ol' me," he said, grinning.

Reno figured he may have gone overboard and hoped it would dissipate a little before Rude, who was out of the room at the moment, came too close.

No such luck.

Rude walked out of Tseng's office and Reno's heart started beating a little faster. They couldn't know anything was different about today. Rude sat down at his desk with just a nod and his usual grunt to Reno, apparently none the wiser.

Tseng came out of his office and cleared his throat. Elena immediately spun her chair around to face him – a little too eagerly for Reno's taste.

"It looks like today's the last day we have to look through Hojo's research," Tseng said. The three seated Turks all cheered. Reno looked up and thanked the Gods. "Rufus thinks he's found something, but he hasn't said what yet."

"So, what do we do when we're done?" Elena asked.

"We're on patrol duty until next week, when we'll accompany Rufus to Junon. He wants to consult with the scientists there."

Well, it was something a little more – Turk-y. Anything to break up the monotony of the past week.

"Ok, finish up whatever documents you still have and then go on patrol," Tseng said before turning back into his office.

Reno threw what was left of Hojo's papers in the air after he found nothing in them. He pulled out the bottle of scotch he had stashed in his desk and poured himself a drink, gloating to Elena the whole time.

"First!" he said after his first sip. Elena smirked.

"I bet you say that to a lot of women," she said.

Reno thought of a snappy comment, but before he could say anything he had a flash memory of that time Tifa made a similar joke a few weeks ago.

"No comeback?" Elena asked.

"I could say something, but I choose not to in front of polite company," he said, lifting his chin smugly. Not today, Elena. Not today.

Elena scoffed. Rude was the only other person in the room.

Reno was practically vicious on patrol. He was like a man possessed.

"I'm just sick of this shit, yo," he said when Rude asked what had gotten into him today. "I want to get back to the Turk Stuff."

The answer seemed to satisfy his comrades.

A small swarm of caesars were running toward them from a side street. Reno was not going to let those bugs ruin all his hard work, so he danced around them, kicking any that tried to attack him but not so hard that he'd break their outer shell. Elena thankfully cast "Ice" on them to kill them in their tracks. No messy explosions splattering bug guts everywhere.

Another pride of zenenes attacked them, but they appeared even more emaciated than the last pack – almost like they were suffering from some disease.

"Just like the guard hounds," Rude said after the group was lying dead on the street.

"You've seen this before?" Elena asked.

"Yeah, the other day," Reno said. "They had lesions just like these and were pretty weak."

"Hmm," Elena said, bringing a hand to her chin. "I wonder if Rufus knows anything about this."

"As long as I don't catch whatever they have," Reno said.

It was getting late when they finally reached Seventh Heaven. Rude and Elena didn't even bother to ask Reno if he would join them. Instead, they just walked up the steps and toward the door. Reno was hot on their heels, however.

"You're joining us tonight?" Elena asked. His behavior was really messing with her.

"Yeah, I looked around, this place is as good as any as far as loose women go," Reno shrugged.

Rude didn't say anything. He reached for the door and opened it.

Reno's heart started to flutter – which he hated – and he felt that tingling feeling in his gut. What was it? Nerves? He hated that, too.

His pupils dilated and his nostrils flared when he saw what was inside. He and his comrades rushed in, weapons drawn.

End Note: A cliff hanger! Oh no! But, I mean, I update this at least once a day – two days at most – so it's not like you'll have to wait long to figure out what's going on.

Fun Fact: After I wrote the last chapter I said to myself, "It sure would be evil of me if I wrote the next chapter all about what Tifa did during the week." At first I said "nah," but here we are.