Rated R for mature situations, drug references, mature language, and explicit sex scenes. You've been warned.

Author's Notes: I promise that I'm actually going to post the rest of this story up. I started playing Final Fantasy VII again, and got bit by the bug. Anyway, things start happening kind of quick in this story so please bare with me. I'm not too worried about trying to get a beta reader anymore…mostly because I just don't seem to care about the mistakes and plot holes, etc. It'll be fine…

G A W D Y F O R T U N E S

Part 1: Unfaithful

By: Xtine

Chapter 2: A Deranged Meeting

A week passed and the two found themselves opening up to each other more and more by the day (or night). Although the happiness and shock of finding herself to finally be wed, Tifa still felt an emptiness within her, a sadness that seemed to just simply not go away.

Stop it Tifa…you're about to have everything you want. A loving husband, and not just any husband but the man you have been in love with for only God knows how long. But still, a single thought still nagged at her, a thought of knowing that she was still only be second best to the ever acclaimed—and dead—Aerith Gainsborough. She knew that the little angel still held Cloud's heart in the palm of her hand, but there was nothing that could be done about the situation. Aerith was gone, and Cloud was right, as it was indeed time to move on.

Although, no matter how much she tried to leave it be the nagging still would not stop. There was nothing that could be done about her intuitions though, and she tried to simply bury them deep in her mind by focusing on present tasks such as work and housekeeping. It was the only thing that could be done.

Together they had planned to wait a year, their marriage date set on the day Meteor was destroyed because they wanted to symbolize the end and a new beginning. Already her anxious heart was condemning her, hollering at her for being so foolish in the whole ordeal, considering they hadn't really done any actual dating before hand, but that was the reason for such a long wait before the wedding. It was to be a time of preparation, and a time of change and a time to cope.

Her thoughts fluttered in her mind as she daintily walked down the street. Everything in life seemed to be perfect as her life began to look up again after all of the hardships she had to deal with, an example being her parents and Sephiroth.

Yes, nothing shall come in between Cloud and me now. We can live together, make love and have a family. No more enemies, no more battles—just him and me. A smile was written upon her lips and her eyes closed in a day dreaming state. Her feet were still subconsciously leading her amongst the town street that she wandered upon, which she was glad as she was not about to awake from her fantasies. At least, she wasn't going to awake willingly.

Of course, she did find herself being abruptly woken up when she plummeted towards the ground below and onto her buttocks, and the cement seemed to be harder that day than usual. At first it would have been her instinct to glare at the perpetrator, letting her cold eyes tear at his soul for daring to let a youth as herself fall to the ground.

As she looked up to the person that had let her fall, she quickly came to realize that she fell a lot harder than she thought. Her eyes became blurry as she tried to focus them on the man in front of her, but all she could manage to do was see a blurry outline of fiery crimson hair that sprouted from the person's scalp.

"Ma'am. Hey Ma'am, are you okay?" a gentle voice came calling down to her that obviously belonged to a male.

That voice, it's so familiar. She began to rack her brain as she tried to pull open the different compartments inside to find where she had heard that voice before. A face, all I need is a face and then I'll know who he is.

"Hey! Are you going to answer me or what?" the male became more persistent and anger now lurked in his voice. She could feel an uncomfortable vibe suddenly jet through her veins as she heard him curse under his voice as he was still attempting to get an answer from her.

Tifa shook her head slightly and closed her eyes hoping that when she opened them she would be able to see clearly again. "I'm fine, don't worry about it."

"Good. I don't want to be responsible for your hospital bill." The smell of smoke suddenly perked in her nose as she heard the man in front of her take a drag off what could only be a cigarette.

"Well that was rather rude, Sir," she spoke, inquiring on his rudeness and then finally opening her eyes up to find them focusing perfect again. She tilted her head up and she felt her heart stop as she saw the stony glare of a familiar face look back down to her.

"No, Rude would have been my partner," Reno spat back at Tifa; his eagerness to see her was well noted. Tifa felt herself tense up a bit, anger beginning to surge through her at the sight of an enemy.

"Well, instead of just standing there, would you like to help me up?" Tifa's voice was annoyed, as his face really was not the one she needed to see at that moment in time. Of all people to ruin her day, it had to be Reno.

Reno crossed his arms over his chest, his cigarette securely clasped between two of his fingers. "Now why would I want to do a stupid thing like that? I finally make my enemy fall and now I'm supposed to help her up." He cocked one of his eyebrows and a smirk spread across his face.

"You know, I always had the moral of forgive and forget, but with you I think I'll make an exception," her spicy attitude slipped through her words.

"Oh you're much too kind." Reno had a way with words, and he loved to watch Tifa sit there and become more upset by the minute. As evil and demented as it was, upsetting people had become almost a hobby of his. Reno was self-centered and very egotistic and he would feel shunned if the attention were not focused upon him. He really could care less what sort of attention, but he seemed to become fond of the negative type, only because he seemed to have to deal with it his entire life; he adapted to the negativity, thriving and feeding off of it—that was what made him such a good Turk.

Ex-Turk, he thought in his mind proudly as he looked down at the pouting Tifa. He never really felt apart of Shinra, and by all means he hated the whole corporation with a passion. He hated it because it had destroyed him, turned him into that blood lusting machine that he had come to be known as. The worst part about it was the fact that he had at one time liked who he had become.

Before that time, before he had made the foolish decision to join the ever-elusive Shinra, he had at once lived in a small town with his mother and father. There was nothing special about them other than the fact that they had birthed him, cared for him, and loved him. At the time he was inspired to become an artist, his dreams held in a pencil and a pad of paper. Everything came to him then, his young age letting his imagination run wild and his feelings free. He was only thirteen years old with he first heard of Shinra.

His father never liked the idea of him becoming an artist; he said he was throwing his life away. Reno always looked up to his father for he was his role model. Somehow after many nights of arguing and many lectures and many broken dreams, Reno finally came to terms and joined Shinra. That was when his whole life changed, he became rough and tough, he became a smoker and a drinker--he had become a Turk.

His old town was destroyed sometime during the years that he was apart of Shinra, which made him hate the company for their malice lies and unseen truths. It was still his job though, and he had to make ends meat and so he stayed with it, destroying families like his own and killing the lives of men. Not to mention the destroying and chaos brought a deranged peace upon his soul.

Now everything was over, Shinra finally done with and he was once again a free man. He wasn't sure what he was doing, mostly because for the past months he had been nothing but a wandering nomad trying to find himself once again—trying to find the child within him.

Ironic that he now stood in front of his enemy, or at least ex-enemy as he should have been bowing down to her toes thanking her and AVALANCHE for their doings. Again, his pride would not stand for it, so instead he stood with his devious grin looking down at her with almost curious eyes.

Tifa knew that he was only going to stare at her all day, so she decided to at least try to make amends and she reached her left hand out in all attempts to get some sort of reaction from him. To her surprise, she found her hand being grasped by his and abruptly being pulled up onto her feet, not exactly graceful as she had to try and balance herself out after, but at least it was the most kindness she had ever seen out of him.

At least, she thought it was kindness until she heard laughter coming from his mouth. Appalled by his behavior, she brushed off the back of her loose jeans and looked over at him. "What's so funny?"

"I see the little lady is planning on settling down," he spoke, his index finger pointing to her hand that her engagement ring had planted itself on. At first she seemed almost embarrassed by it, placing her right hand over it to cover up.

"Yeah, so what is it to you?" she asked, wondering why he had even pointed out such a silly thing. He was about to answer, but he figured it would be best to finish his cigarette first. With a single last drag off of the wrapped tobacco, he felt it was finished and then quickly disposed of it upon the sidewalk.

"I should of known you were going to get married to that spiky assed fucker," he used plain obscenities instead of using his name.

Tifa's attention was grasped, the obscene name leading to only one person. "How do you know its Cloud?"

"How do you know I'm talking about Cloud?" he contradicted her, raising his eyebrows and then turning his body the other way. That was enough conversation with her for that day as he had put in his two senses on her predicament. In all reality the whole town was talking about their engagement, and it really wasn't a lucky guess on his part. The strange part of the whole matter was the fact that he was strangely bothered by the circumstances—not because Tifa was to be wed (he had no sort of feelings towards her anyway) but the fact that such a gorgeous and pure person could be written off with such a piece of garbage.

Oh what does it matter to me anyway? He had his own problems to deal with. It's only Tifa by the way.

Author's Note: I love the sarcasm between Reno and Tifa. Those two together are just so much fun. Anyway, Reno enters the picture now and things will be getting exciting quite quickly.

Disclaimers: I do not own any of the names, characters, or places mentioned in this story.