Chapter 77

By the time they'd gotten back to ShinRa House, Reno was more than a little turned on. Aura pulled him inside, kicking the door closed behind them and began pulling him toward the stairs before he stopped her. "Waitwait…"

"What?" she asked, blinking. Her bright green eyes moved back and forth across his face, widening momentarily as if she thought he was about to reject her. "I…"

"No…" Reno slid a hand around the back of Aura's neck and pulled her into a kiss. He groaned as she melted against him, but then forced himself to lift his head and look at her. Aura's eyes were still wide as she gazed up at him and, even in the dim light, he could make out the light blush colouring her cheeks and trailing down her throat.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked, her voice soft. Reno felt her taking handfuls of his shirt, pulling him closer, and he pressed her gently back into the wall, one of his own hands moving to cup her cheek.

"Go upstairs…" he breathed, his face inches from hers, "I'll be up in a moment…"

"What are you doing?"

"You'll see…" Reno stepped back, straightening his shirt and pulling his jacket off. He gestured at the stairs. "Go on…"

Aura released a slow breath and looked up at him before nodding and standing straighter. "Alright…" she took a hesitant step away from him and toward the stairs, looked him over once more and then turned and did as he said. Reno watched her for a second before heading into the kitchen.

He tossed his jacket onto the small table by the wall, and turned toward the fridge. As this was their first night away, Reno had figured they should celebrate. He had packed accordingly. After Cissnei had visited earlier, he had slipped a bottle of sweet dessert wine into the fridge so that it would be chilled by the time they returned from dinner. He had washed and set aside two wine glasses and, as he strode across the kitchen, he snagged them with his left hand before pulling the fridge open and taking the bottle out. "Nice…" he muttered, pleased that it was indeed cold and, figuring that was all they would need, Reno headed upstairs to find Aura.

She was in the bedroom they had chosen earlier and, when Reno walked into the room, he found Aura standing at the window which she had thrown wide open. Stepping up behind her, he looked out at the ocean just as she was doing and then bent to whisper in her ear. "I have something for you…"

"I'll bet you do, yo."

Raising his eyebrow, Reno smirked. He always enjoyed when Aura got like this. "Here…" he handed her one of the glasses and then filled it with the delicious looking scarlet liquid from the bottle in his other hand. "Try this…" He poured some into his own glass as Aura lifted hers to her lips. The low groan he heard a second later made him smile widely.

"What is this?"

"I take it you like it?"

"So yum…" She turned to look at him and he lifted his own glass to take a sip. It was as smooth and sweet as he remembered, and he watched Aura drain her own glass a moment later before grinning at him.

"Well, then." Turning, Reno moved to set his glass and the bottle on the bedside table, before glancing at the bag he'd set on a chair earlier. "… I have something else for you, too."

"Really?"

"It's… just… something to celebrate… this… us…you." Reno unzipped his bag and shifted things around until he found what he was after. With his back to Aura, he tried to smooth out the paper he'd wrapped it in before he turned back around to face her.

Aura was sitting in the middle of the bed, her empty glass now sitting beside his on the small table. She watched him silently, expectantly. "Come sit with me…"

Reno walked slowly to the bed and climbed onto it, settling himself down against the cushions piled against the headboard with Aura beside him. He handed her the small box in his hand and then watched her as she turned it over in her own hands.

"What is it?" she asked softly.

"Guess you'll have to open it and find out, yo."

Mako green eyes flicked toward him before back to what she was holding, and she slowly began to remove the wrapping. "I didn't get you anything…"

Reno wrapped an arm around behind her. "I get you."

"Smooth." She commented, putting the paper aside. Reno just grinned and watched her open the box before taking out the ornate bottle from inside, resting it gently in her hand. "I… haven't had perfume in years…"

"I know." He murmured. She'd sold the bottle she'd had when they had been in dire need of food not long before he'd taken work with ShinRa. "This one…" he carefully took the bottle from her and unscrewed the lid. Tipping the bottle a little so that the golden liquid moistened his fingertip, Reno glanced at her face. "is not the same…" he touched his fingertip gently to the side of Aura's throat, anointing pressure points as he did so, "but it's as close as I could find to the one you used to have…"

"Smells like it…" Aura's voice was soft, "How did you remember what it smelled like?"

"Ah… I don't know." Reno put the lid on the bottle again, "Scent is closely linked to memory…"

"Thank you…"Aura cuddled closer to him, resting her head against his shoulder and the scent of the perfume hit him and with it came flashes of memory.

He thought again of that night they'd gone home with the fifty Gil. They had dragged both of their mattresses into a corner of the room together. Reno had piled cushions against the wall and then leaned back against them while Aura had tucked the money under a corner of her mattress to keep it safe and hidden. She had then crawled across to him, settling down against him and pulling the blankets up over them both. Reno had adjusted himself so that she could lean back against his arm which was draped around her and her head rested against his shoulder, much like they were now. He remembered the way he had watched her, waiting to see what she would do, but she had done nothing further, seemingly content to rest there comfortably as they watched their breaths fan out into the cold air before them.

Aura had turned eighteen not two weeks before that night, and Reno had decided that he really needed to figure out a way to keep them warm that didn't involve them having to go practically live in the clubs of an evening. It had become more and more difficult to keep people from harassing her, coming up to her and touching her. Even when the two of them had been dancing together, guys had continued to approach her and try to pull her away, and Reno had had more than enough of that. He had thought at the time that he had just been trying to protect her, but he suspected now that jealousy had had more than a small part to play in his reactions.