alescA Munroe: Thank you so much for reviewing and reading the story. I'm glad you're enjoying it. I loved writing it.

Beyond the Reflection

Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII.

Summary: When Reno takes on the investigation of a case in Wutai, he gets more than he bargained for. Mainly: one obnoxious, spoiled, sarcastic, and infuriating brat. (Among other things of course.)

Headaches and...Graphic Information

By:ClassicLit

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&Reno's room, Pagoda

Reno woke up with a killer headache in the morning. In fact he couldn't exactly open his eyes. The only thing that alerted him to the fact that it was morning was the painfully bright red that he could see behind his closed eyelids. Of course it could always have been Yuffie shining some ridiculously bright light in his face. He definitely wouldn't put it past her. Yet it seemed that this particular morning this would not happen due to the amount of sleep, or the lack thereof, that she got during their promenade through the forest. This brought him to the very painful reality that it was morning and he did have to open his eyes.

He pried one eye open and after not seeing anything of particular interest (just the room) he closed it again. It wouldn't hurt if he perhaps stayed in bed through the day, would it? He hoped not because he was counting on doing just that. Before he could harden his resolve however, the door to the room creaked open. One guess who it was.

"Wake up Turk boy!" that's right it was the devil incarnate herself. Reno pretended to not have heard her obnoxious attempt at waking him up. The next few seconds passed in complete silence. Then Reno felt a cold finger on his neck obviously measuring the pulse.

"I am still alive, brat." He said batting her hand away and turning over onto his stomach.

"Oh, damn." He heard behind himself and resisted the urge to do something horrible to her. Perhaps...His sadistic thoughts were interrupted by another exclamation.

"Don't you dare go back to sleep! Breakfast is in an hour and Godo expects you to show up. Get off you're lazy ass and get a move on it." Yuffie said bouncing out of the room. Reno rolled his eyes and almost burst into tears. This was such a good moment to strangle her he had the element of surprise going for him, but he didn't act on it and now the moment is lost forever. "I couldn't move anyway" he assured himself and with that consoling thought he finally pushed himself off the bed.

A painful spasm shot through his body. He had a bad habit in forgetting about his injuries. Perhaps if he didn't forget about the stitches in his side he would have been more careful when putting all his weight on the right, or otherwise known as injured, side.

He stalked off moodily into the shower noticing his bag that he brought with him on the floor. After shrugging off his clothes he stepped into the shower. For a second there he couldn't feel anything after turning on the water. (Perhaps doing so with closed eyes was a mistake?) He soon found the reason for not feeling the anticipated flow of water hitting his body. His body was quite numb to say the least. Reason? The damn water was so cold. It was just his luck. "Even the fucking water isn't cooperating."

When he was finished with his WARM shower Reno, to his great chagrin, went into a coughing fit. Once that was over with he started sneezing. Stumbling out of the bathroom he almost lost his balance. "Fucking wonderful" he thought wryly "added to the extensive list of things I didn't want happening in the past four days is a godamn cold. Whoompty fucking do."

He heard light chuckling coming from the doorway. He must have said that last sentence out loud. The laughter died down however as Yuffie turned her back on him and in an uncharacteristically soft voice asked if he found his bag. Reno, not for life of him, could figure out what would promote such behavior, but soon he noticed the source. Perhaps the fact that he was standing in the middle of the room with only a towel wrapped around his waist had something to with it?

Did Reno have any sympathy for others however? No, of course he didn't, thus seeing this as an opportunity to get back at the brat he plastered an infuriating smirk on his face and assumed a casual expression. His "entertainment" didn't get very far in its process however. Before he could say anything else he heard a rather distinctive sound of footsteps approaching the room.

Yuffie forgot about the little predicament she was in and became very alert to the sound that was coming from her left. In the corner of her eye she saw Reno freeze, which meant he too noticed. She was facing away from the sound and in all honesty she didn't want to turn. She was firmly set on not turning in fact until she felt a hand lightly land on her shoulder. She jumped at the unexpected contact and her first reaction was to throw a shuriken at the perpetrator. She intended on doing just that, but when she finally turned the perpetrator turned out to be Staniv.

The aid smiled faintly as Yuffie scowled lightheartedly at him.

"I just came to say that breakfast has already been served." He said and started walking off. "Don't kill the messenger." He added as his form faded down the hallway.

"Nervous much?" Reno asked with an amused quirk in his eyebrow. Yuffie simply growled before setting off herself down the hallway. Reno thought he heard a faint "You can find your own way to the dining hall." but he didn't concern himself with that and instead concentrated on getting dressed, which turned out to be more painful than he anticipated.

After finally being ready to go Reno could have slapped himself. He didn't know where his room was in proportion to the dining hall. In fact he had no idea where the hell the aforementioned dining hall was overall. He really doubted the possibility that there would be signs pointing the way to different rooms. He didn't even know where the damn exit was to get the heck out of there. Yuffie coming back and helping him was certainly out of the question. In other words his streak of bad luck was continuing and he was stuck in the damn room.

In essence he had two choices. Stay in the room and wait until Godo makes the brat go get him or wonder aimlessly around the Pagoda. Of course Reno went for choice two and with that in mind he went out of room and turned left down the hallway. A person with any common sense would try to remember, and succeed in doing so, which direction Yuffie went during her fit, but not Reno. Thus, he didn't heed the fact that Yuffie went right and he was slowly progressing towards the left.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&Library

Yuffie was sitting at a corner table in the library looking through old newspapers trying to find any snippet of information to give her an insight on FIST. It was strange to say the least, she has never heard of them. And if they were an organization who tried bringing down ShinRa, why didn't it contact AVALANCHE? Heck, why isn't it trying to come to power now? She almost gasped at that last thought. Maybe it is. She shook her head lightly and went back to looking through the newspapers.

As she was busy flipping through the pages a feeling of guilt settled in her stomach and wouldn't leave her alone. Alright, so she lied about the breakfast to Reno. In all reality breakfast was served at the dining hall whenever a guest would come in and ask for food. She just wanted to be mean and get him up before he wanted to do so himself. She shook her head again to rid herself of the feeling. The damn Turkey deserved it.

She sighed lightly and focused back on the newspapers in her hand. She was about to label her search as futile until she ran across something that caught her attention. It was an article predating current ones by three years.

"Last night a man was found in sector seven slums in a bad shape with quite an amount of horrible injuries. He had bruises and lacerations all over his body, his shoulder was dislocated, he had two broken ribs and his neck was broken as well. The doctors have yet to stabilize the condition of this mysterious figure, but one thing is for sure due to the fractured tie between the spinal chord and some of the nerve endings the man will be paralyzed from the waist down if not completely. The identity is yet to be established."

Yuffie blanched. That sounded absolutely horrific. Did it have anything to do with ShinRa? She dug around in the pile that she got the last article from and found another interesting one predating current events by two years.

"A man was found brutally murdered on ShinRa front entrance door steps. His body was mutilated beyond recognition and etched across his chest was a sign "It Starts". The ShinRa failed to comment on the..."

The article was snatched of her hands and before she could so much as protest she saw Reno lounging in a chair across from her reading over the aforementioned article. He folded the paper neatly and placed it on the table before giving Yuffie a lopsided grin.

"Curiosity killed the cat." he said teasingly while lounging even further back into the chair, if it was humanly possible.

"I don't see any cats around here. And I am quite human thanks." Yuffie growled while glaring daggers at him.

"Keep growling and maybe I'll believe ya." Reno shot back giving her a smirk to rival Lucifer himself. Yuffie simply rolled her eyes at that one and fell back into her own chair.

"Talk now!" she said authoritatively while mock glaring at him and insinuating that this is an interrogation. Reno quickly picked up on that.

"Brat, I know you're not pathetically trying to interrogate me right now." he said with a raised eyebrow. Yuffie only smirked back.

"Don't like the taste of your own medicine eh Turkey?" When Reno simply shook his head Yuffie knew she was rubbing soar spot and that was never a good thing when the action involves Reno on the receiving end. She retracted and decided to take a different approach. Before she thought her actions through she was already climbing onto the desk and situating herself right in front of the Turk. She shook her finger at him with a halfhearted glare.

"I don't care whether you "feel" like discussing that article or not, but guess what you're going to. And you're not telling me something that you know." Reno was quite for a few seconds and then

"Well, I was born in Midg..." he got a well-deserved punch on the arm for that one accompanied by a growl. He fell back in his chair feigning death, but he saw no reaction from the now stoic Yuffie he dropped his mask of pain. "What are you interested in hearing pest?"

"Will you answer?"

"Depends on the question." Reno answered with a smirk. Yuffie sighed, climbed off the desk and settled back into her chair. Putting her hands together in a typical psychiatrist fashion she assumed the most serious expression she could master.

"Tell me about your childhood then." she said sobbing a bit for full effect. Reno rolled his eyes at her childish antiques.

"I'm hungry and I'm leaving." he said slowly and started getting up. Yuffie, unlike what Reno hoped she would do, stayed put instead of helping him get to the dining hall. He froze at the doorway.

"How about we make a deal. Ill answer three of your questions and you'll get me to the dining hall." Before thinking for too long Yuffie was out the door and Reno could only shake his head and run after her.

They arrived at the dining hall and Yuffie sat him down with a halfhearted wave towards the table and went somewhere off to the side to talk to the chef. Reno took a seat at the corner of the table and began to examine his surroundings. There was certainly something royal about it. The deep crimson curtains that covered the huge windows that showed the beautiful garden outside were very much tasteful. The light streaming through the crack between the curtains was dulled and cast almost an ethereal glow across the huge room. He didn't have much time to admire the scenery seeing as Yuffie walked in the room with a huge grin on her face followed by two servants with as much food as Reno could probably eat in one year.

"Now you're not twisting out of this." Yuffie said triumphantly. Her triumph was lost on Reno however as the Turk completely disregarded the gloating 'teenager' (by his words) next to him and proceeded to eat.

Sorry I had to stop here. This chapter would have been way too long because I couldn't think of another possible place to end so it would make sense. Plus I want to torture you. Mwa haha! Alright I'm done with my sadistic act. On a more serious note however could you please review because I'm sometimes not sure if you guys like this story and it would really help if you could review. Criticism is always welcome.