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CHAPTER ELEVEN - REMEMBRANCE
'What in the world were you thinking of last summer … what was the price you paid in silver and gold … Well I might be wrong but I've got such a surprise for you … Am I wrong to tell you that I'm over you … What can I do to make my dreams all come true … What can I say to make the cruel world go away … Am I wrong to tell you that I'm over you … You know I've been waiting a long time - tangled up in you … The truth is only one step behind … tangled up in you … What was the word that he used to make you his own … What was the line that made you succumb to his will … Am I wrong to tell you that I'm over you … You know I've been waiting a long time - tangled up in you … The truth is only one step behind … tangled up in you … I'm lost and I'm lonely and I want you to hold me, yeah … The truth is only one step behind … tangled up in you … (Gene Loves Jezebel: 'Tangled Up In You')'
Shantytown. Afternoon.
"If I'd known you wanted to get physical, I'd have obliged you earlier." Reno's words were slurred as he approached her at the entrance to her tent. He grabbed her arm, and spun her around. Despite the influence of the alcohol in his system, he still had the element of surprise on his side.
Reeve's warning shot through her head as she felt herself being lurched around by him. She regained her footing quickly, but he had already pinned her arms to her sides. He looked scrawny, but there was strength in those thin arms. 'He is still a Turk.'
"I certainly remember how you like it." His eyes bored into her, anger hidden beneath the aquamarine depths, currently clouded by alcohol.
"Stop it, Reno." Tifa demanded, keeping her voice level, despite being close to a breaking point. She was physically strong, but emotionally fragile right now, and his behavior was getting worse. It was as though he enjoyed the torment that he was putting her through. "If you want to get laid so badly, why don't you find one of your cheap whores? I'm not interested."
"But you were once." His voice was in her ear now, and she could feel his warm breath against her skin and smell the alcohol on his breath.
"Stop making it sound like that, Reno. It wasn't… we weren't like that at all." She twisted in his grip, but he countered by grasping her arms tighter. She could've easily kicked him and sent him to the ground, but she was fairly certain that doing so would only bring him back for more. She hadn't expected him to be back for more so soon after laying him flat earlier, but apparently Reno was one that enjoyed the torture.
Instead of her first response of kicking him, she decided to try a different tactic with the less-than-sober Turk. She looked directly into his eyes, hopefully forcing him to remember. "Has all the time with the booze and whores made you forget, Nathan?"
'Nathan.' She'd used his first name, spoken it as soft as she'd whispered it under the stars of Costa del Sol in the past. Oh, Holy, he didn't want to remember, but as his eyes met hers, the memories came flooding back. The beginning of that fateful trip to the Western Continent; the one that ended in her walking away from him. He closed his eyes against the memory that he knew was coming, but he could still feel her eyes boring into him, forcing him to remember this. He didn't have to ask her what she was thinking. He already knew.
She stood at the window waiting for him to arrive. He had told her he was taking her away with him for a week. Just the two of them. She smoothed out the already smooth fabric of her dress, nervously awaiting the upcoming week. She bit her lower lip as she heard him pull up. She watched him get out of the sleek sports car and admired him from her vantage point in the window. He was handsome, with flaming red hair that was pulled neatly back into a ponytail. His physique could best be described as scrawny, but there was strong muscle there. She could feel it when he hugged her. She was enamored of him, but she didn't know what he expected from her and she wasn't sure how to bring the subject up. He was 20 and four years older than she. He had lived in Midgar all his life and had grown up in the slums. She knew he worked for Shinra, but she wasn't quite sure what he did. Despite that she hated Shinra, she couldn't hold that against him. After all, even her childhood friend Cloud Strife was a member of Shinra's elite Soldier forces.
As he got out of the car, he glanced up towards the window to her apartment to find her standing in the window watching him. He smiled at her as he walked towards the door to the building. He watched her smile in return, but even through the glass, he could see a quiver of nervousness in that smile. He could understand that. After all, he was taking her away with him for an entire week. He himself was nervous at the whole idea, but it seemed like the right thing to do. She was different from the other girls he had dated in the past. Though she was young and very naive, he was fascinated by her. He knew that she had survived an attack from General Sephiroth himself, though Reno wasn't sure quite how. She herself wasn't sure of the details, only knowing that the last thing she remembered before she woke up in a Midgar hospital was Sephiroth's masamune slashing at her.
He climbed the stairs to her second story apartment, stepping past a drunk passed out on the steps. It reminded him of his own childhood in the slums, dodging drunks and other pieces of human trash on the streets and stairs of homes. He was thankful to have gotten away from that. He bore too many scars from his life down here, memories of street gangs, of which he had been a member of the toughest, until he had been caught and pressured into joining Soldier. It had provided him much needed discipline, but it was his cunning nature that had eventually gotten him noticed by the leader of the Turks.
She stood in the open doorway of her apartment as he reached the top of the stairs, waiting for him, a smile on her face. Her nervousness seemed all the more evident as he walked up to her and drew her into his arms. He kissed her softly in greeting, inhaling in her sweet scent. He reluctantly pulled away from her lips and looked into her eyes. Seeing the hesitation there, he asked, "Are you ready?"
"Yes," she replied, somewhat nervously, picking up her bag from the floor by the doorway. "I wasn't sure what I needed to pack. You said to be prepared for anything, but you didn't tell me where we were going!"
"Did you pack your bathing suit?" When she nodded, he continued, "And your snow suit?" He grinned mischievously as he watched her eyes grow wide.
"I don't even own a snow suit!" She exclaimed.
"Don't worry. I was just teasing you. You won't need one." He smiled at her. As much as he'd wanted to take her to the snowbound Icicle Inn, he knew there just wasn't time this trip. Maybe next time. They'd just have to make do with Costa del Sol and the Gold Saucer. She brought out the best side of him. He wasn't full of his usual smart-ass remarks when he was around her. Maybe it was her vulnerability that brought out his protective instincts, even though he knew she could probably kick his ass in a fight. Maybe it was just the desire to be better than he was. Either way, he was like a completely different person when he was with her. He could forget who he was. He could forget that he was a Turk. That it was his job to kill people.
"I got us a room with two beds." He looked hesitantly at her. "If that's okay? I can get you your own room, if you'd like."
"No, one room is fine." She suspected that he was taking her to Costa del Sol and maybe even to the Gold Saucer, but she wasn't going to say anything. She didn't want to spoil his surprise.
"I just don't want you to be uncomfortable." He said, wondering for the millionth time why he was acting like a gentlemanly schoolboy, and wondering even more where he'd managed to pick up these manners. He'd started taking greater care in his appearance since he'd met her, tucking in his shirt and making sure his hair was neatly combed. But there was no way in Hell that he would wear a tie. He was getting enough razzing from Rude and Tseng as it was. He didn't need to add any more fuel to the fire by adding the noose to his neck.
"How could I be uncomfortable when I'm with you?" She asked him, laughing softly, trying not to giggle foolishly. She was grateful for his consideration, but he didn't have to treat her like she was a china doll that was going to break.
He merely kissed her in reply, loving the silken feeling of her skin against his lips. She was someone he could fixate on that hadn't hurt him in the past. She had been hurt by the devastation she had witnessed, and all he wanted to do was protect her. He never wanted anything bad to happen to her ever again. And it wouldn't. Not if he was around to stop it.
She laughed at him as she closed the door behind her, locking the deadbolts securely behind her. He took her bag from her and held her hand as he led her down the obstacle course of junk piled on the stairway. He opened the car door for her and gazed into her eyes, bringing his hands up to cradle her face.
"I want you to know that... that you don't have to do anything you don't want to." He smiled softly as he brushed his thumb lightly over her cheek. "I'm not expecting anything. I just want to spend some time alone with you." He glanced around the Sector Seven slums. "Away from Midgar. Away from this life."
She smiled a relieved smile as she got into the car, folding her legs comfortably in the space in front of her as he shut the door. She let out a sigh of relief. She wasn't sure she was ready for that step yet. He was so sweet to her, but she wasn't sure. He placed her bag in the trunk next to his own and slid into the driver's seat next to her.
He turned to her and kissed her lightly before starting the car and pulling into traffic. "Next stop: Paradise!"
Reno shook his head to clear away the past that refused to leave him alone. He moved his hands to release her arms from his grip, but found that he had unknowingly loosened his grip on her, and was instead stroking her arms gently.
"Reno." Her tone was level, betraying none of the flustered emotions that he was causing in her as his fingers brushed against her arms with the gentle touch of a tender lover. "Let go of me."
His hands dropped from her arms, and he hid his embarrassment as he realized what his fingers had been doing. He was, for once, completely without a witty comeback. So without a word he turned and walked away.
Tifa watched him walk away, both anger and disappointment welling up inside of her as he disappeared from view. She turned and walked into her tent, peeling off her leather gloves and tossing them on the bed Her mind was spinning with the memories that surfaced from looking into his eyes and from his gentle touch against her skin.
She shook her head to clear them, chiding herself for letting her mind think such thoughts. He was Reno, the Turk that dropped the plate on her home and friends. Despite their past, that was something she wasn't going to let go of. Not for a very long time.
She sighed deeply as she pulled on the Premium Heart, thinking that some time away fighting monsters was exactly what she needed. No Reno to cloud her thoughts. No Cloud to drive her crazy with his fawning over the deceased Aeris. Just her, some ex-Soldiers, and a bunch of monsters.
She stretched out her arms and legs briefly before going through the motions of the Final Heaven attack against an invisible opponent. She pushed Reno and Cloud out of her mind completely and beamed. "Yeah, I've still got it!"