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

Author's Notes: More drug references in this chapter but no actual drug usage. Just a quick warning!

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

Part 1: Unfaithful

By: Xtine

Chapter 6: Supermarket

The eager morning sun once again slipped in between the slits of the window shade, and danced upon the sleeping form on the raveled sheets of her bed. Tifa stirred awake, her head feeling heavy as she cautiously opened her eyes to greet the morning. She let out a moan of resentment to the bright sun and she turned her body over so she wouldn't have to deal with the bright lights piercing her eyes.

What exactly happened? Her mind pondered as she tried to fully arouse her mind. She peered over at the clock that rested comfortably on her nightstand and noticed the glowing numbers announcing that it was 11:00 a.m.

She rubbed her head with the palm of her hand in attempts to ease the pounding pain she was enduring now. She cursed herself for getting that drunk, but in a way it was helpful to get her mind off of the predicaments of her life right now. However, her mind started to flash a few scenes from the night before, but none were clear enough for her to depict what had actually happened. In fact, it all only felt like a dream.

Knowing that she had already slept in way past the time she would normally be awake, she figured it was time to drag herself out of bed and continue on with her everyday errands.

xoxox

It took her less than an hour to fully make herself look half decent from the state she was in. Her eyes were still slightly puffy and her face held a sorrowful look as she exited her house, but at least her hair was nicely put back and her clothes clean and fresh smelling. Now she would be able to fool the people around her as she normally would with her enthusiastic act.

Her first stop was the grocer, where she was to buy a few groceries for the days ahead. She found herself aimlessly wandering down the dairy isle, searching for milk.

Little to her knowledge, another being with the fiery red hair was coincidentally there at the grocer, and he had almost immediately spotted her when she first arrived. Reno at the time was talking to one of the ladies at the front counter trying to get a pack of cigarettes.

"That'll be $5.65," the middle aged woman spoke to Reno as she handed him his order. He nodded and took out the money and handed her the exact change. Taking his purchase and placing it in his jacket pocket, he then headed towards the dairy isle to give Tifa an unexpected surprise.

xoxox

Tifa fumbled with the heavy glass door to obtain the milk she was trying to get. It took her only moments to snatch the carton off of the shelf and step back to let the door close. But to her surprise, when she stepped back she felt herself rebound off of another person that was standing directly behind her. Immediately she began to spit out apologies, not knowing whom the person was until she turned around to show her full apology.

Reno grinned when his gaze met with hers. A look of horror spread across the woman's face as she recognized him immediately.

"Reno, what are you doing here?" she asked sternly.

"Just getting my cigarettes," he replied calmly. He could tell that his cool nature was beginning to aggravate her. Tifa stared coldly at him and simply began to walk off in the other direction and headed to the produce isle.

Reno felt a little hurt from the cold shoulder, but he wasn't about to give up yet. He still had about an hour on his hands until he had to be some place important and irritating Tifa was becoming more of a hobby than anything. With that thought in mind he made sure to not directly follow her as she went on to find her fresh produce. Instead he took the long way around and while she was busy looking through the heads of lettuce he once again made his approach on her.

Tifa felt his presence again but she simply ignored him. She was not going to let herself be consumed by his deceiving mind games once again.

"Nice sunny weather we're having," Reno commented, knowing that just the sound of his voice was going to send her over the edge. Tifa had noticed on her walk over to the grocer that dark clouds were hovering over the sky and light sprinkles of water were beginning to fall from them.

"You know," Tifa snapped back, "I could call the police and have you arrested for harassment."

Reno put on a sarcastic tone, "Oh no. Please, don't do that."

Tifa turned directly towards him, her tired amber eyes meeting up with his. "Why are you bothering me?"

"Let's just say I'm trying to repay an old friend."

Tifa looked at him quizzically. "What the Hell is that supposed to mean?" Her cursing told Reno that she was mad. Reno, on the other hand knew he had grabbed her attention and with a cocky grin he walked off down the isle and outside the store where he would be able to smoke a cigarette.

Tifa growled lowly as she watched him simply walk away from her. She felt lucky that she had slightly good anger management or else she would have most likely decked him right there on the spot. Instead she just watched him walk off, and she decided to do the same as she had gotten the groceries she needed and she made her way to one of the front cashiers to pay.

The past two nights were hard on her emotions and she was quite frankly becoming sick of it. She decided it was time to do away with the perpetrator and thus she was taking her anger out on Reno.

xoxox

Reno stood with his back against the wall, leaning his scraggily body upon it while he held a cigarette within his fingers. He took a drag and looked at nothing in particular as he heard the front door of the shop open and close. Immediately he knew it was Tifa, a sort of instinct had told him. He also knew that she was going to head towards him, angrier than a hornet.

"All right Reno, what's this all about?" Tifa questioned him as she stood only a few feet away from him.

"It's nothing you would be able to understand. You're too wrapped up in yourself to see what is happening around you," Reno's voice was cold. Tifa was taken back by his words and his accusations about her being arrogant.

"Look, just because I'm starting to get my life back together and I'm not living on the street, doesn't mean you have to come and ruin everything for me again," she felt herself beginning to say too much, but at the same time she knew there would be no other way to get him off her back. "You're not welcomed here Reno, so why don't you just leave before you start ruining lives again?"

Those last words struck him hard. He was attempting to forget about all the people he had killed in the past, all of the families he had split up, and all the lives he had ruined. His facial expressions became hard as he shot a cold glare over at Tifa. He knew there would be nothing else to be said at this moment, so he simply walked towards her, stopping right next to her and whispering in her ear, "Take a good look Tifa, the only one ruining your life is you."

Tifa stood dumbfounded as she listened to his footsteps continue on across the concrete sidewalk, his feet beginning to splash in the rain that was beginning to poor down from the heavens. She couldn't move at that moment, everything she was beginning to believe in was falling apart around her. She was lost, and once again in her life she felt she had no one to turn to, nobody to find answers from. Instead she was left with the realizations that her past decisions were now affecting her in ways she would never expect them to.

xoxox

Reno took one last drag off his cigarette and flicked the butt out into the sopping wet street. Sinking his hands deep into his pockets, he continued walking at a medium pace. He looked like just another dark figure on the street, his black jacket and worn blue jeans showing that he didn't have much money, and he literally looked like a classic drug dealer. His face was expressionless, his features made of stone, and his eyes dark with rings under them.

How exactly he let himself come to this he wasn't sure, but all he knew was that one-day things were going to look up for him. One day he wouldn't be walking along the dirty streets of a desolate town meeting up with random strangers for his goods. One day he would find himself.

But for now it was all he had, and he damned well knew it. A sigh escaped his lips as he came to a dark alley with a dark figure standing next to a dumpster. He looked at him, attempting to recognize some of the man's features.

Short spiky hair, combat boots, and average height. I suppose this is my man, Reno contemplated in his head as he approached the man, hoping he would recognize him as well. The man made a signal that he was aware of his presence and began to approach him as well. They met up and began small talk, as to look inconspicuous.

Little to Reno's knowledge, he had been followed. Tifa was curious as to what the man did during the day, where he was staying, more or less if he was staying anywhere and if the only reason he was ever coming to her bar was for a warm place to sleep. She hid herself by the side of the building when she saw Reno enter the small alley, and she felt herself become disgusted when she heard him talking to another person.

At first she heard their quaint conversation, but she already knew the real reason why Reno was there and a feeling of disgust lifted through her body. She wasn't really surprised that he would get himself in situations such as this, considering it was Reno, and he would do just about anything to get money.

"You weren't followed, were you?" a gruff voice asked the younger man. Reno shook his head as a response and dug into a pocket over his chest and took out his money. He handed it over to grimace figure and waited for him to count and recount the money. The older man nodded his head in acceptance and was about to reach into his pocket to get the goods when he heard an alarming scream.

Reno's ears perked at the sound and he immediately turned around to see what the commotion was about. To his surprise he watched another burly man with dirty blonde hair walk in the alley with them. This other man had a woman clenched tightly in his grasp with a hand over her mouth to muffle her complaints.

"Who the fuck is that?" the man who Reno had just handed money to asked alarmed. He was paranoid as Hell, and he immediately walked over to his henchman to see what had happened.

"Dunno, but I saw the bitch spying on us," the other replied hastily, trying to hold down the squirming girl. Reno took another glance at the woman and a rush of worry suddenly washed over him. It was Tifa.

"Hey, let her go," Reno argued quickly, not really knowing what exactly he was saying. The man with the spiky hair looked at him with angered look from Reno's deceit.

"She's my bitch for the night, all right?" Reno tried to assure them. The main dealer nodded to his henchman to release the woman. Obediently the man released her from his grasp and received a look of hatred from her.

I can't believe this, Tifa thought bewildered. Reno at the time just prayed that Tifa kept her mouth shut until the deal was done, mostly for the fact that any word she said at that moment could easily get herself killed.

The man with spiky hair continued on with the deal handing over a small baggy with a white powder over to Reno who quickly shoved it in his pocket. With everything taken care of, the two men quickly took off out of the alley to do their business elsewhere.

Tifa was enraged. Flames grew in her eyes as she looked over at Reno who still held no expression upon his face.

"I can not believe you Reno!" she exclaimed. "Now I know what you mean by business at least!"

With a quick movement Reno found himself pinning Tifa up against the wall, his hands grabbing hers and pinning them firmly against the wall and his leg pressed against her thighs and his body weight shifted against her to ensure she wouldn't be able to struggle too much at the words he was going to say.

"I just saved your life," he spoke fiercely. "You should be grateful that I didn't just leave you to those rats where they would have raped you and left you in a fucking gutter."

Tifa's breathing was rapid as her adrenaline was rushing from his actions. She didn't know what to say, and she found herself uncomfortably pinned up forcing even more stress upon her. He was a mastermind, and knew how to frighten her.

But there was something even deeper than his forceful actions. He had leaned in close to her to speak, his breath caressing her skin as he spoke in a threatening voice. A shiver flashed down her spine from the heat of his voice.

Reno felt that the point had gotten out to her and cautiously he released her, hoping that she wouldn't backfire and jab him in the jaw. To his luck, after backing off she simply stood against the wall her breathing starting to slightly calm down.

"But…why?" she finally mustered up the courage to ask.

"Because some people weren't seen in the world's eyes as heroes, and when Shinra fell, so did everybody that had become apart of it," Reno spoke, his words hinting to a small hurt he felt from Shinra.

Tifa let her eyes cast towards the ground, watching the shadows of the dark alley twist and turn from the heavy rainfall. Her mind was still trying to accept the fact that Reno was a drug dealer, but whether or not he actually did the drugs she wasn't sure, but she figured he did. Her respect for him fell, as she could see that by now it was certainly time that their contact with each other cease if she were to still live a half way decent life.

"Reno, you really need to leave by the end of the week. You know once Cloud comes back and sees you he won't be as accepting as I am," Tifa concluded. Reno scoffed at her remark. He wasn't really out to ruin her life, because he very well knew that she was doing it herself already. But that was fine, he would have the rest of the week to try and change her ways and get the revenge on Cloud that he desperately seeked, but if he didn't succeed, then he would merely go on in life and hope to hit it big at a Casino or something of the like. Although...he was still unsure why he was putting so much effort into it.

"I was planning on leaving at the end of the week anyway. This town doesn't have much to offer," he denied, mostly to just satisfy Tifa with reasoning.

"Where exactly are you staying?" Tifa asked, not knowing if she was really concerned or if it was just in her nature to look out for the well being of other people. Reno gave a small chuckle at her question, as he figured that she already knew that he had nowhere to stay.

"Where ever it's dry," Reno remarked. Tifa rolled her eyes, as she should have already known that.

Once again Tifa felt she was to open up her comforting heart to him. "Fine, you can stay with me until then. But no trying anything funny."

"Funny? Do I look like a comedian to you?" Reno grinned, only getting a response of Tifa shaking her head to him and then walking off in the direction of her bar. Reno gave a silent sigh and dug his hand deep into his jean's pockets and obediently followed behind Tifa.

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