Disclaimer: The Final Fantasy VII compilation does not belong to me. I do not own the characters, story, places etc. They are all the property, copyright and trademark of Square-Enix. I place no ownership/claim on them by using them in this work of fan fiction.

Warning: Explicit Content

Chapter Fourteen: The Well Inside

It was surprising to her, just how different two kisses could feel. She had experienced a handful of them during the course of her life and mostly she had found them to either be not very memorable or simply just down right unpleasant. It had struck her that maybe it was a case of inexperience with her previous 'partners', or perhaps they had been too drunk or too nervous. None of those aspects applied to the Turk or to the President of Shinra. For starters she didn't need to be a genius to know they had both had their fair share of experience, then there was the fact that the red head was far too good at holding his alcohol and the man in front of her now most likely never let himself be so far under the influence that it would effect his judgment. As for nerves, Reno probably didn't even understand the concept of them and Rufus never did anything without for thought. Still, they were both so different.

Reno's kisses were energetic, playful, teasing. They pulled her in and made her skin tingle with the kind of electricity that left you craving more. His lips crashed against hers with such need she often felt like she was the centre of his world for a moment and his tongue moved as if it almost had a mind of it's own. Those kisses filled her with such intense excitement, they were addictive and they made her feel wanted. They made her feel alive.

This though, this made her heart thud against her chest, slow and hard, like I wast being crushed by the sheer weight of meaning that was held in this moment. It felt important, significant. The kind of moment that could make or break everything that laid before them. Part of her wanted to resist, to deny him this part of herself, this intimacy that might one day be expected of her, but she she couldn't help that spark of curiosity. The one that wanted to see if he could make her feel something, anything close to what she hoped she could feel, or if she might be dooming herself to a lifetime with someone who could stir nothing within her at all.

The thumb that had held her chin brushed down the front of her neck, his touch featherlight but purposeful as he brought himself closer, allowing a mere moment to catch a breath before deepening the kiss. His lips were soft, but there was no hesitancy there as they moved against hers, as if they knew exactly how to tame out any doubt she held about him. She was used to the Turk's fervent kisses, the ones that pushed and pushed, demanding everything, but also giving everything in return. This held none of that urgency, none of that hunger and yet she didn't find herself wanting to pull away because despite the differences, it was not cold, not unfeeling. There was something. Something underneath that was being held at bay, but only just. Whatever it was she wanted it to reach her, she wanted to feel it.

When he pulled away, she suddenly felt extremely vulnerable, with every instinct telling her to run and hide and yet her eyes couldn't resist the urge to look up at his face. She wasn't sure what she was expecting to see, or what she was hoping to, but as her eyes met his own she felt a blush warm her cheeks. He was smiling at her. Not the kind of smile that Reno gave her when he though he had gotten the best of her, but the kind that felt contented, satisfied, relieved. As if he had discerned something very pleasing in the last few moments and proved something important to them both. After holding her gaze for a moment, he spoke, his voice a little softer than usual.

"I hope that was not too forward of me, Miss Kisaragi. I…couldn't help myself."

Yuffie opened her mouth to speak, but found herself closing it again, fearing her voice would betray too much she wasn't yet sure of herself. Instead she simply shook her head in response. Before they could even think to discuss what had just happened between them any further, a high-pitched electronic beeping sounded from the President's pocket. His hand reached for the device and he took a few steps away from her as he brought it to his ear.

She was getting used to hearing these one-sided conversations now and as always they gave away very little in the way of information. Her breathing grew shallow as she tried to make herself as silent as possible, straining to hear anything at all coming from the other end of the phone.

The call only lasted a few minutes, before Rufus slipped it back into his pocket, his face displaying nothing to alleviate her curiosity. Not having the patience to go along at his pace, the young brunette walked over to him, crossing her arms over her chest as she looked up at him with wide eyes.

"Is everything okay?"

He nodded his head with one of his small smiles, "It would seem so, yes."

Her shoulders relaxed a little as she processed the snippet of information. Everything was okay. That was good, but what did that really mean? Was everything okay because no one had gotten hurt, or because they had found the culprits? What had they attempted anyway and why? As her brain started to go back into overdrive, she heard the President's voice resonate in her ears.

"A car is on it's way to pick you up and take you back to your apartment. It should be here shortly."

There was a little too much eagerness in her voice as she spoke, "Is Reno coming to get me?"

The young man's voice was steady at he looked at her, "No, it will be one of my bodyguards."

She jerked her head up, her eyes wide with concern, "Where is he? Is he okay? Is he hurt?!"

Rufus looked at her with an unmoving expression, his own voice betraying no discernible emotion, "The Turks are all fine, Miss Kisaragi. They are just wrapping up some business. You'll be watched by one of my bodyguards until yours can return."

She was so distracted by the sudden swell of relief that she didn't notice the intense way he was watching her, nor the way his eyes had narrowed as she let out the breath that she had been holding. If she had noticed it, she would also have seen the way the look had disappeared the moment she had met his gaze once again, all emotion vanishing from his face in an instant. It might have even scared her. If she had noticed.

The car journey had felt far longer than the one they had taken to get there. Perhaps because there was no one beside her this time and instead she was left with only herself for company and that of her own thoughts, of which there were far too many, all of them twirling around inside her head with not a one making any sense. Her chest hurt. It was a strange thing, to feel so connected to someone and yet feel so conflicted about them at the same time. If she was just a woman and not the heir to the Wutaian throne, he wouldn't look twice at her. She wasn't stupid after all. She was sure he was happy to some extent, after all she wasn't unattractive and she was still young and inexperienced enough that he probably thought he could manipulate her. He wanted her co-operation, that was all. Still, she couldn't help herself. Part of her still wanted to trust him. She felt it in her chest when he looked at her. He may not be the open book she knew herself to be, but still she felt no deception there. Could he really be just that good of an actor?

What if she was just feeling this way towards him because subconsciously she knew how much easier it would be for her? Something her mind had fabricated to protect herself from the emptiness of a loveless marriage. It was even worse to consider that he too was in the same boat. Was he really forcing himself to act in such a way? To show her these 'hidden' sides to himself? Was it just a way to draw her in and make her feel special? Was the affection merely a way to placate her? That was truly a horrifying thought. She didn't want someone to pretend to want her. She wanted to be wanted. She wanted to be loved. Was that really so much to ask for?

Maybe she was fooling herself. Maybe this was something that was simply out of reach for people in their positions. Maybe pretending was a mercy.

Still, acceptance of such facts was no easy task. To endure a lifetime of pretence just for some semblance of sanity. Had Rufus already accepted this fate? Is that why he seemed so convinced of the success of their partnership? Did he really believe they could be happy?

They had such a shared weight on their shoulders and had both experienced the isolation that came with their titles and yet they were also so different. He had embraced his world, had used every piece of knowledge he had to his advantage and played the game as it was made to be played. She had raged at it. She had run away in an act of sheer defiance and snatched every inch of freedom she could and with it she had manged to experience something wonderful, but now she knew what that had cost her. To have been there, to have been free to make her own choices, it had made the reality of her situation all the harder to bear in the long run.

Part of her wished she had never left Wutai, that she had just accepted her fate with the same detachment that Rufus so often displayed. How much easier it would be for them now.

As she walked through the door of her apartment, she was enveloped by utter darkness and she suddenly found herself overcome with a desperate loneliness she hadn't felt for quite sometime. Her back slid down the cold, hard wood of the door as it clicked shut behind her and as her body hit the floor, the hot prickle of tears began to fall silently down her cheeks.

She didn't want to be here alone. She wanted a distraction. She wanted to forget. She wanted Reno.

The President's bodyguard gave the red head a quick nod in acknowledgment as he arrived to the apartment, before walking past him and disappearing down the stairs. He sighed as he searched his pocket for the key. It had been a long day and he needed a drink. He wondered if the young brunette would still be awake. His lips formed a soft smirk at the thought of her waiting up for him. That would be nice, but he doubted it. She was most likely already curled up in bed, warm and cosy and probably snoring. For someone so energetic, she sure was good at falling asleep.

Part of him wanted to just curl up with her, to let the warmth of her skin against his own pull him under and snatch a moment of peace before he inevitably awoke again. Maybe she would wake up with him this time and they could fill the void with a different kind of warmth entirely. That would also be nice.

The key clicked as he turned it in the lock and he used his shoulder to slowly push the door open, his hand catching it as he entered, allowing himself to control the weight of it and leading it to a gentle close. The room was dark, apart from a faint cloud of white bleeding in through the weave of the curtains from the street lights outside and there was a stillness about the air that unsettled him. His eyes darted towards the bedroom door, but it was closed and no light could be seen from under it.

His hand reached out to the side to feel for the light switch and as he flicked it upwards, it was only his highly trained reflexes as a Turk that stopped him from jerking at the unexpected sight of the small form that was huddled against the arm of the sofa. It began to stir as the light beamed down and as the young brunette turned towards the source of the disturbance, he noticed the sore red patches under her eyes and the trails that clearly stained her cheeks, no matter how hard she had tried to rub them away.

Her voice sounded strained and muted as she spoke, "Hey. Sorry…I must have fallen asleep."

Reno arched his brow as he watched her, "What are you doing out here?"

She looked up at him with hazy eyes, her voice still quiet but softer than before, "I wanted to wait up for you…"

The smile that pulled at her lips made something in his stomach clench uncomfortably. It was desolate of her usual spirit and he couldn't bear to look at it. He took the few steps over to her in silence, his eyes narrowing as he lowered himself down to her level. He reached out his hand and brushed some loose strands of hair away from her cheek. She didn't resist the touch, but her eyes were refusing to meet his as he took in the sight of her face up close.

He kept his voice steady as he spoke, unsure of the tone he should take, "What's wrong Yuffie?"

She gave a little sigh, along with another half-hearted smile, "Nothing."

"Nothing?" His brow arched again, annoyance creeping into his tone as his eyes bore into her, "You've been sitting here crying, for nothing?"

Reno could feel that unpleasant sensation in his stomach again and when no response came from the young woman, he had to use all of his self-control not to betray the anger that was starting to rise inside him.

"Was it something with the Boss? Did he do something?"

Yuffie shook her head almost instantly and he knew he was not completely incorrect in his assumption, but he remained silent as she took in a shuddery breath.

"…It's not him. It's not his fault. It's just…" She shrugged as she struggled to find the words, "I just feel…" Her eyes flickered up to his, their usual warm brown seeming hollow as her voice all but turned into a whisper, "Trapped."

His jaw clenched. He didn't like this. It wasn't right. He didn't know what to do. He knew he couldn't fix it. This thing was so far beyond his reach and yet he still wanted to do something. He wasn't the hero type. He couldn't swoop in and change the world for her, nor could he free her from the life fate had chosen for her and be her knight in shining armour. That shit was for people like Strife or Valentine, or one of the other selfless types who lived for that stuff. He wasn't made for that. Still, maybe there was something he could do.

Reno let his hand fall down her cheek and slowly trail down the bare skin of her arm, his eyes locking onto hers with an intensity that hid none of his intent.

"Let me distract you."

He didn't need her to say anything to sense her willingness as her eyes fluttered and he gently, but purposefully pushed her backwards onto the sofa, sliding her body along it's length as he crawled on top of her. He brought his mouth down to her neck and slowly began to place featherlight kisses down her throat, his finger curling around the top of her shirt and pulling against the buttons as they started to undo with a pop. His lips brushed across her collarbone and he heard her suck in a breath as her shirt finally fell open and his hand reached up to push her bra up and over the swell of her breasts.

As his lips started to trail down to enclose around her nipple, Yuffie's breath hitched in her throat and her voice sounded softly in his ears.

"Aren't you tired?"

"No." He hadn't take the time to look up at her as he only stopped for the mere second it took to speak, before his mouth returned to it's place against her skin. Her body arched into him and he knew in that moment she wanted to be just as lost in him as he wanted to her to be. He would make her forget, if only for this moment. That would have to be enough.

His hands worked quickly to remove her jeans before turning their attention to his own clothes, his jacket and shirt easily pulled off in a single motion with his trousers and pants soon following as he kicked them off for them to fall somewhere on the floor beside them.

As he begun to lean down once again, he felt her own fingers grasp against his chest and he raised his gaze to meet her own, his eyes narrowing slightly in question. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, her face flushed and restless as her eyes flickered around his face, before pulling him down, her lips gently pushing against his as her fingers tangled in his hair.

She so rarely initiated kisses between them, preferring it would seem to let him come take the lead and yet this time she had clearly wanted him to kiss her so badly that she was couldn't wait another moment.

Her lips were soft and warm against his own and he couldn't help the feeling that something was different about this encounter. Finding himself filled with a need to find out, Reno pulled away, sitting back against the sofa before dragging her up and over his thighs as her legs were forced either side to straddle him. He twisted one hand in her hair as the other made it's way down to slip past the thin fabric barrier of her pants, his fingers brushing against her as a soft, desperate mewl sounded from her lips. Her hips bucked into him as he increased his pace, his fingers sliding further to push against her opening before slowly thrusting into her.

As he continued, her whimpers became more unrestrained and her hips moved more frantically and he knew it wouldn't be long before she reached her climax. He made to tug against her hair, forcing her head to tilt backwards with a demanding need. He wanted to see her, to look into her eyes as she came to the brink. She was more open now than he had ever seen her and yet he couldn't discern what it was she was trying to tell him.

A moment later she pushed her hands into the back of the sofa, as her back arched and her body begun to clench around his fingers, a moan choking somewhere inside her throat. He watched her face with an intensity that almost threatened to betray more of himself than he was willing to and still he couldn't figure it out. He didn't want to wait for her to come down from her high, instead allowing her only a moments pause before grasping her hips and pushing them down to meet his own, plunging into her in one forceful thrust.

They locked eyes and for a moment he wished they hadn't because for once he was sure she could read that treacherous feeling he was trying to so hard to suppress. Not wanting to allow her to delve too deeply into his mind, he made to increase the pressure of his thrusts, her body jerking upwards as a breath was forced from her throat. As he continued in his unrelenting rhythm, he slid one of his hands around her back and pulled her closer, their lips knocking against each other as their breaths intermingled with the heat from their connecting bodies intensifying the intimacy that was becoming dangerously addictive for him.

Much to his annoyance, knew he wouldn't last much longer and as he felt himself begin to fall over the edge, he crashed his mouth to hers, holding her tight against him in an act of absolute possession.

As the tension began to dissipate, their bodies became oddly still for a few moments, Yuffie resting her head against his shoulder with soft, shallow breaths barely sounding from her lips. Reno welcomed the silence. He wasn't sure what to say to her right now. He could make some lewd comment, or joke about wearing her out, but he knew it would sound different on his tongue. That uneasiness was still there in his gut and he really didn't like it.

Without a word, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her back to her bedroom, placing her down on the mattress before crawling in beside her. Maybe she was just as unwilling to talk as he was, as she remained unusually quiet, seemingly welcoming the presense of his body behind her as he pulled the duvet cover over them both.

His eyes remained open for quite a while as he felt her shoulders begin to relax and slump as she fell into that easy sleep of hers, feeling content to just watch her.

He wasn't sure how he'd feel when this came to an end, but he was beginning to worry he wouldn't be able to give her up so easily. Women came and went in his line of work all the time, but this one, well, she was something different. It was true, he hadn't wanted to let such a rare opportunity slip through his fingers, but surely he would be equally stupid to let someone else just take it away from him.

Something about her was pushing him closer and closer to the edge and threatening to undo all that hard fucking work he'd put in to be the one in control of this thing. Why the fuck was that? Why couldn't he just leave her be? Was he really that weak?

He wasn't an idiot and no matter how hard he tried he knew he'd made a mistake starting this thing. He knew now, more than ever that he was falling for her.

What the fuck was he going to do?

Yuffie felt him lift himself from the mattress, as she purposefully kept her own form as limp and still as possible. She didn't want him to know she was still awake. She had dozed off for a while, but a restlessness inside her had kept her from being able to fall completely into the depths of slumber.

As she heard he carefully close the bedroom door, she let out a soft sigh. Was this what he always did? Waited until she fell asleep before going to sit and smoke in the quietness of the night. She wondered if he slept at all. It wasn't something that she'd ever considered before, but she had never seen him sleep. Why was that?

Perhaps he was troubled by the same thing she was. They had shared something this evening. Something different than before. Things had shifted and she knew they had both felt it.

This thing between them was getting out of hand. She couldn't let herself fall to him. He would only hurt her. She knew now why she had avoided this bullshit for so long. It wasn't pleasant, to feel for somebody. To be so vulnerable.

Worse still she had fooled herself into thinking this was something different to what was happening with Rufus, but it was all the same. It was what these men did. They were all playing her. She didn't know either of them, not really, not the way she should. They were hiding themselves from her and it made her feel helpless. Helpless and angry.

Something had to change. She was done being led around by these men and the masks they wore. She was catching up now and she knew she held power of her own. It was time she started using it.