Author's Note: I finally caved to popular demand and have officially changed this from a one-shot to a multi-chaptered fanfiction. I warn you now, though, even then it'll only be three or four chapters long. Still, this is for my fans and general ReTi fans – remember to keep the love alive, people!
Chapter Two
"Happy Valentine's day, Princess," Reno whispered into her ear as he wrapped her arms around her waist from behind and held her close. She leant willing into his sturdy frame, welcoming the embrace.
"And happy one year anniversary," she reminded him, turning round to face Reno and smiling warmly.
"How could I possible forget with all of those notes you've been leaving me."
"Notes?" said Tifa innocently but her grin told a different story. "I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about."
"Liar," mumbled Reno, moving over to the fridge and pulling it open. He retrieved a carton of milk and drank deeply from it before continuing. "Or did that little yellow note saying 'Remember – buy Tifa anniversary present or she will be pissed' just fall into my bag after a friendly neighbourhood mouse wrote it?"
"Don't drink from the carton – it's gross," Tifa chided, cuffing him lightly around the head and moving to the toaster, pulling out two slices of bread and beginning to spread them thickly with jam. "And so what if I did give a little bit of gentle guidance? Did it work?"
"You'll have to wait till tonight and see. Technically we didn't start dating until the evening so I'm afraid I can't actually give you your present – if I've got you one, that is – before then."
Tifa shook her head lightly. "All right but it better be good Mister. And not another one of your coupons for a night of Reno lovin', as you call it."
"Fine. But you have to admit, it's a good idea." Reno smiled at her again before catching sight of the wall clock. The hands – shaped like two beer bottles, as it was taken from Tifa's old bar – were pointed to quarter to eleven. "Right, we'd better open up for the day. The restaurant's fully booked for tonight and there's plenty of reservations already been made for lunch not to mention the few who always turn up anyway. Business is booming, Princess, and it's all thanks to you."
He moved round to kiss her again and she responded with giving him a quick peck and that irresistible smile. "I'd better go have a shower then."
"You know, I could actually use one too. And there's still a little time before we have to officially open and it'd be a waste of water for me to have one afterwards –"
"Nice try, Reno," said Tifa, pulling off her shirt and moving towards the bathroom. "But you're not coming in with me. We'll save that sort of thing for Valentine's day night, yes?"
"Fine," mumbled Reno, grabbing a fresh shirt off the ironing board and pulling it on. "But it's a good thing I love you, or I'd be feeling a little unwanted."
"I love you too," called Tifa over the noise of the shower.
Tifa had to admit; the relationship had gone far further than she had ever anticipated. It had been rough, especially at the start, and they'd had their offs and ons but they had now officially almost lasted a year together and that was a real achievement especially as the end was nowhere in sight. If anything, their relationship had grown stronger with time.
Yes, thought Tifa, as she soaped herself in the shower, the beginning had indeed been rocky. Despite her constant protests to the contrary, she just had not been over Cloud and Reno had had a real problem with that. It wasn't her feelings themselves that he'd had a problem with – that, he'd said, he could understand – it was her denial of them that had annoyed him. And then of course she'd had her own doubts. Reno was a notorious flirt and even she couldn't have stopped the pangs of suspicion that plagued her mind.
Eventually, it all came down to her own insecurities. And it had actually taken Reno himself to get her to realise that.
"What is it you're so afraid of?" He'd snapped at her, after a particularly unpleasant dinner about three weeks into their relationship when she had accused him of flirting with the waitress fourteen times and eyeing up the woman at the bar with no underwear on five times. "What, do you think I'm going to just get up and leave you like Pretty Boy did? Is that it?"
Tifa had looked down at her food, too shocked to really say anything. To her surprise, she had felt her eyes well up with tears. Without even trying, Reno had just hit the nail right on the head. Still after all this time, Cloud had been on her mind.
"That is it," she had heard Reno mumble softly to himself and then she'd felt the warmth of his hand gripping hers, strong and reassuring. "Listen to me, Tifa – that is not going to happen, okay?"
"You don't know that!" she'd wailed and the tears had finally fallen, coursing down her cheeks.
"Yes, I do. Even if some day, for some reason, this relationship doesn't work out and has to end, I will not just clear off in the night leaving nothing but a note like he did. Never."
The sincerity in Reno's voice then and the warmth in his eyes had been the only thing that had kept her from running away herself. Tifa massaged the shampoo into her hair and thought about how much she and Reno had become dependent on one another, especially at certain times when without each others support they could well have ended up in their own deep, brooding holes from which they'd never have emerged.
Like when Reno had been fired. Tifa was still not entirely sure what Reno's job had been – even now he refused point blank to tell her – but it had seriously shaken him up when they'd finally let him go. Nearly two months into their relationship it had happened and Tifa had known instantly that something was wrong when he hadn't called her. She'd marched straight round to the flat he was renting in Neibleheim and had found him unconscious on the floor after an even heavier than usual night's drinking.
By this time, Tifa had gotten used to Reno's regular alcohol intake and due to her gentle persuasion he'd even cut down a little so she'd known this wasn't just a fun night out gone overboard thing, it was serious.
It had taken him nearly a full day to sober up again and when he was awake he was irritable and angry. Once he'd raised his fist to Tifa and she would have left right then and there if he hadn't fallen to his knees right then, practically in tears, begging her forgiveness. Her suspicions were one hundred percent confirmed: something terrible had happened.
Even then it had taken a while to get it out of him. Reno was certainly stubborn when he wanted to be, she'd give him that. But eventually he told her.
"I got a call the day before last," Reno had said shakily, his eyes blood-shot from the night before. "I got fired, Tife. I've never been fired before!"
"Well, that's not so bad. It happens to everybody at some point, Reno."
"That's not the point! The point is now I have nothing to do. This is all I've done for my entire working life – there's nothing else I'm good at. How will I be able to afford… anything?"
"You'll land on your feet. You always do," she'd said gently, putting her arm around him. "And you can stay with me – then you won't have to pay for the flat and I have plenty of money now that the bar's going to so well."
There had been a long pause and when Reno finally spoke, his tone was serious and his gaze never left the floor. "Tifa… I've done a lot of terrible things in the past. In fact, not just the past; some of my jobs have been quite recent. You deserve someone so much better than me, someone who can give you all of the things you deserve. I was always sure that was me because at least I could I give you one of those two things but now I can't even do that. You don't even know me that well, Tifa."
"I don't know you that well?" said Tifa and much to Reno's amazement she'd laughed and hugged him close before continuing. "Reno, I doubt that there's a lot of people out there who know you as well as I do. I knew to come round here looking for you when you didn't call me the other night. And do you know how?"
"Because you're too nosy to mind your own business?" he'd joked feebly.
"No. Because every other night since we began dating you've sent me some sort of message at exactly quarter past midnight because that's the time when we got together. You thought I didn't notice but whether it was e-mail, a phone call a text message or even a visit in person, I did. I always did. And I got in because I knew that you always keep your spare key under the rose bush to the right because you say that most hit-men are left handed and so wouldn't think to look under the right."
"Yeah, but that's just something stupid I made up…" Reno mumbled.
"I remembered it, though. Whether you like it or not, Reno, I am now a part of your life. Remember that, and nothing else really matters because no matter what happens you've always got someone there to face the rough times with and that's a wonderful thing, Reno, that few people get. So don't you dare waste it. Don't you dare."
She'd left then and the next day he'd shown up at the bar as if nothing had happened except that his bags were in tow. He'd looked so embarrassed at asking to stay with her but Tifa'd been happy to let him in and he'd lived with her even since.
Tifa grabbed a towel from the rack and turned off the shower before stepping out, dripping, and wrapping the towel around her. She'd been the strong one then but even she had had difficulty coping when the inevitable happened: When one of her friends found out about her relationship with the ex-Turk.
It had happened over five months in, when Barret had needed to go away for a while for his own personal reasons and left Tifa in charge of Marlene. He had been dropping the little girl off round at Tifa's Seventh Heaven bar when Reno had suddenly appeared from the back room shirtless, crushing any belief of Barret's that he may have just been dropping in for a quick drink.
If Tifa hadn't stopped her old friend, he would of left there and then taking Marlene with him. She'd caught up with Barret – who walked surprisingly quickly – nearly half way down the street.
"Look," she'd protested. "Reno's not actually a bad guy. He –"
"Not a bad guy?" Barret had cried angrily. "Yo, Tifa, d'ya even remember Reno? D'ya even remember wha' he tried t' do to us, what he tried t' do to Aeris?"
"Yes, I know, but –"
"No, you don't!" The look Barret had given her then was one she'd never forget: one of pure disgust and horror, as if he couldn't quite believe that it was true. "All those people, Tifa. All those people who are dead because of HIM! And ya know that, don't pretend you don't, but ya'd rather pretend it didn't happen, tha' he's actually a 'good guy' and tha' people can change. Well, you keep on believing that if ya must Tifa but it's not exactly a policy that has worked well for you, is it? It didn' work with Cloud and it won' work here!"
At that moment, Barret had realised that he'd gone too far but he was too stubborn to apologise and Tifa was too stubborn to have accepted it if he had. Due to the commotion, Reno himself had come outside, still shirtless, and now he stepped forward, finding the words that Tifa could not.
"Leave," he'd said firmly to Barret, his eyes hard and strong. "Leave now. She doesn't want you here and neither do I. Okay, I can understand that this is a bit of a shock for you-"
"Way to understate things, Turk," muttered Barret darkly.
"Whatever. I understand that. What I don't understand is why you're punishing her for it. You crossed the line just then with that comment about Cloud and you know it. And you may not like Tifa's choice in friend or partner but that doesn't give you the right to dictate to her who she should be with, agreed?"
"If you think that this little speech'll change my mind about you, Turk, you are mistak-" Barret roared.
"No, I don't," said Reno calmly. He hadn't raised his voice once which Tifa was grateful for – the last thing they'd wanted was half the street listening in. "Frankly, I couldn't care less what you or anyone else thinks about me. But I'm sure you can't blame me for wanting to stand up for the woman I love when I feel she's being wronged."
There was a moment's silence.
"It's really… that serious, huh?" said Barret eventually, his tone suddenly very different.
"It really is," said Tifa, stepping forwards as she found her voice at last. "We love each other, Barret, and I'm sorry I never told you before it's just that I was afraid that you'd react… Well, exactly as you have. And then you asked me to look after Marlene for the week and I couldn't refuse. I'm sorry."
To everyone's surprise, probably himself as much as anyone else's, Barret had left Marlene with them for the week and even muttered a quick "thanks," to Reno when he'd returned. Reno had even grown quite fond of the little girl.
Tifa towelled herself down and wrapped her long hair up into the towel to dry. Her good mood darkened slightly as she remembered the last words Barret had said to her before he'd left. While Reno had been saying goodbye to Marlene and helping her collect her things, Barret had taken Tifa to one side.
"Lis'en, I can jus' about accept you and the Turk but I've gotta ask. Tifa, if Cloud came back tomorrow and asked you to choose, wha' would ya do?"
Tifa had told him not to be silly; Cloud wasn't coming back and even if he was she doubted he'd asked her anything like that. But he knew that she was trying to avoid answering. The truth was she hadn't a clue what she would do, not even now on she and Reno's first ever anniversary.
Tifa shook her head, clearing her mind of these thoughts and stepped through to the bedroom to find some clothes.
It was closing time at the Seventh Heaven bar and restaurant. Tifa mopped up the last wine spill and tipped the last waitress before latching the door closed for the evening. Usually she would have locked it up tighter but Reno had mysteriously left earlier that evening and she knew that it had to have something to do with her present that she hadn't yet received.
Tifa smiled to herself as she thought through all of the possibilities of what Reno had bought her. She'd already given him a Valentine's Day and anniversary present – a photo album containing photos of them together as well as a few at the end of Tifa on her own for his own personal pleasure. But what had Reno got her? She honestly had no idea. He'd dropped no hints and refused to budge no matter how much she pestered him with questions.
She tucked her washcloth into her belt and looked around the Seventh Heaven, thinking about how much it had changed in the last year. With Reno's encouragement, she had extended her beloved bar by adding a family restaurant to one area and business truly was booming. On days like tonight, it was full to bursting with couples as well as families and she'd had to hire extra help to cope with it all. Reno also worked behind the bar some nights and even co-owned it with her.
A sudden harsh banging on the door broke her revere, and she turned to it smiling to herself. Here it comes, she thought and even felt a tingle of excitement. Typical of Reno – starting his surprise by reliving the moment they had met each other again. She smoothed down her hair, lit a candle at the only table that still had chairs around it as opposed to on it and picked up one of the two glasses of wine she'd set out.
Tifa rushed forwards as the banging began again. It was raining tonight; no wonder Reno wanted to be let in. "Okay, okay, I'm coming," she laughed, pulling the door open.
The laughter died in her throat. Her face blanched. The wine glass fell from her hand and smashed on the floor but she didn't even notice.
Standing in the doorway was a face so familiar she would have been able to draw it blindfolded. He looked up at her with his amazing, mako-blue eyes and smiled weakly. His blonde hair was drenched, as were his clothes but still he smiled at her.
"Tifa…" said Cloud quietly.
