Disclaimer: Aaaaaaargh. Refer to the previous 3 chapters. FFVII be not mine. Nor its characters. Didum.

A/N: Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaah, banging my head against a wall is starting to look appealing. School starts up next week and I hope to gods the workload doesn't kill me. Anyway, this is supposedly theme #3 - passion at stagesoflove; admittedly, this was only supposed to be a drabble, but the keyboard ran away with my fingers again and it turned it into this. Hopefully the chapter doesn't seem to awkward or too fast for the development of the ReTi relationship since I wrote it at 1am in the morning in quite an addlebrained state. This chapter occurs a couple of months after the events of AC. Thank you muchlies to everyone who reviewed, I really appreciate it. Well then, let's get to the chapter before I bore you!

Radiance

"Oof!" A fist to the redhead's stomach ends up with him sprawling in the puddle of rainwater nearby. He bares his teeth at his adversary playfully, and she smirks back slightly when he springs to his feet again, bare feet smudged by muddy soil and blades of grass. His eyes follow her as she circles him; they are both waiting for the other to attack as patters of rain drizzle down around them.

Silence, except for the sound of their breathing, the pitter-patter of rain and the rustle of movement as Tifa shifts her feet in the grass and Reno follows, as though mimicking her movements. The smooth transition of stalking to a headlong rush is Reno's only warning and he jumps up into the air, Tifa's sharp roundhouse kick snarling through the air where he previously stood. He flips backwards with feline grace, hands touching the muddy ground for an instant before he propels himself into the air again, then his feet touch the ground, and his toes grip the grass hard for purchase and balance.

Both he and Tifa are fighting barefoot, and the martial artist is not wearing her customary gloves today. The invitation to spar (Reno) in the rain was met with consent (Tifa) due to her lack of a worthy opponent (Cloud and Rude, who declined vigorously) and because it had been quite some time since she had gotten out to fight in the rain. The slippery but earthy feel of mud between her toes makes her feel at one with nature again and since it is a friendly spar, both she and Reno are pulling their punches. For someone who wasn't trained specifically to fight barehanded, she is rather impressed with Reno's feline grace and agility; the Turks train their own well.

Rain has matted down Tifa's hair, causing it to cling to her skin; she brushes her hair back with a hand, and no sooner has she completed the movement, then Reno is surging forward towards her. He is fast, but she is more experienced, and she parries his blows easily before he can land a hit on her.

Then his face nears hers so suddenly that she can feel his soft puffs of breath against her skin; she feels as if she is wading through water, against a current that pulls her, that wants her to yield to it, and his proximity gives her the opportunity to really look into his eyes. She is spellbound by the seriousness in it for a split second, before a lazy smirk pulls at his lips, and he knocks out her feet from under her. Tifa lets out an undignified squeak and grabs at his arms, the nearest form of support and unwittingly pulls him down along with her when his eyes widen and his feet slip against the mud as well.

Twisting his body around so that he will take their weight one of his arms loops around her waist loosely, and he finds that it fits comfortingly there. Upon impacting with the ground, Reno growls an "Ow," but his arm around Tifa does not loosen itself. Any movement he wishes to make in regards to rubbing his abused skull are halted by the feel of Tifa's breath against his neck, lips dangerously close to his skin. Still, he meets her wide eyes as his arm tightens around her waist, draws her closer to him and he swallows convulsively. This time, there is no Cloud to interrupt their silent, eternal staring at each other, and he is strangely afraid that she will suddenly come to her senses and push him away, but thus far her fingers are still tightly curled around his arms. Reno doesn't think he has ever waited such a long time for something in his life before. The playful air with which they began with has gone, and something heavier, more tangible has taken its place, and he is not sure whether it is better or worse.

When she licks drops of rain that have fallen upon her lips to moisten them, his eyes trail her tongue, and he breaks the unbearable silence with a rasp that tells her he's not quite in control of his voice.

"May I…kiss you?" The words are sincere and no one has ever asked Tifa that before, and her answer comes in the soft shyness of brushing her lips against his, and one of her hands uncurls from his arm to brace against his chest instead.

The butterfly touch of Tifa's lips against his has Reno's mind reeling, and his free hand slips into her hair, touch light, but angling her face closer to his to kiss her, taste more of her on his lips. He is pushing himself up from the ground now, knees on either side of her, and she sits up with him as well within the space between his spread legs, and he is unrelenting in his passion, coaxing her to open her lips to his amorous attention as he kisses her and kisses her and kisses her, teeth nibbling at her lower lip one second, pressing butterfly kisses to the edge of her lips the next. She has looped her arms around his neck, one hand fisted in his wet shirt as she returns the demand of his lips with hers, mimicking the movement of his lips.

When they break apart, breathless, Reno can't help but notice that Tifa looks thoroughly kissed – by Shiva, she looks fantastic like that – and he rests his forehead against hers as they breathe together. Her face is flushed pink and she offers him a shy smile, which causes him to kiss her agonizingly slow this time, and she responds in kind, tilting her head as her lips engage with his. When he pulls away from the kiss this time, he kisses her forehead gently, and draws her close to his body in a hug, arms wrapping snugly around her and she buries her nose in the crook of his neck.

They stay wrapped in each other for a long while until the sun's rays break through the clouds, and the rain lets up. Reluctant to let go but knowing they need to get cleaned up – summer rain will never have quite the same connotation again – they entangle themselves from each other. Reno stands first, offering a hand to Tifa to stand; when she takes his hand, he notes the slight feel of callouses in her palm – a testament of her strength and unrelenting work through countless years – and he respects the strength in the form of this beautiful, fiery woman. She watches him, slightly amused when he grazes his lips over her knuckles, his eyes watching her watching him, full of promise of things to come.

The subtle change in their relationship is still something that will take them time to explore, but they are walking hand-in-hand together into the uncertain future as the sun shines down upon their backs.

A/N: -sings- Reviews, reviews, help me write betteeeeeeeeeer. You know the drill. ;P