Tifa looked at her phone as she ate her breakfast after seeing the kids off to school. She was torn about wanting a girl's day out, even if it was just afternoon tea at an elderly woman's apartment, but Reno lived right next door to her, and she wasn't sure if that was a good idea. "Are you afraid of Reno? That's ridiculous!" Tifa argued with herself. "He's just a guy I saw naked and painted him that way, that's it." Grabbing her phone, she called and asked Aerith and Yuffie if they'd like to go to tea at Mrs. Beasley's. Yuffie had no trouble, but Aerith was more hesitant.
"That sounds fun, but I just hope she doesn't bring up my painting again." Aerith said.
"What do you mean?" Tifa asked, curious.
"She told me I should finish it, and that Reno would model in private for me if I fed him in exchange." Aerith explained.
"I don't know why she would, and we'll change the topic if she does." Tifa promised and hung up, feeling better that she wasn't the only one whose painting the older woman talked about. "Food? That's all it takes to get him to pose? He would be that easy..." Tifa muttered to herself, remembering all the food at the art class.
The young women arrived promptly at 1pm for tea as Mrs. Beasley requested. When she opened the door to let them in, Reno's door opened as well, and his hand snaked out to hang a tie on his doorknob, then the door slammed shut and they heard a deadbolt slamming shut as well.
"What was that about?" Yuffie asked.
"Men." Mrs. Beasley smiled indulgently to suggest it was just one of Reno's quirks. "Please come in."
"You have a beautiful apartment, Mrs. Beasley." Aerith said as they walked inside.
"Thank you. That's one of the advantages of being old, you end up with a lot of pretty things. And please, call me Ellie." the elderly woman told them. "We're going to have to have tea in the spare bedroom, I'm afraid. It's the only room big enough for all four of us and the goodies." she lied as she led them there. They could have done it in the dining room, but the wall was thinnest in here.
"That's quite a spread." Tifa remarked as she looked at all the food spread out on the bed. The tea was on top of the dresser.
"Us Stitching Bitches love to cook too." Ellie explained. "Please, take a seat."
There were three chairs with a small fold up table in front of them, near the thin wall between her apartment and Reno's. Her own chair was by the dresser with the tea service on top of it.
"You have the Xingalai china!" Yuffie finally noticed the pattern on their tea cups. "Where'd you get this?"
Ellie smiled at her excitement. "I thought that would interest you. My great-grandmother was given this set as a wedding present."
Suddenly they all heard Reno's voice through the wall. "Have you been a good girl?" he asked in a tone of voice the three young women had never heard before.
"Oh no, I've been a baaaaaaad girl." a female voice replied, then a low moan came through the wall and other indefinable sounds.
"What's...what's that?" Aerith wondered, even though they all knew she didn't need to ask.
"You'll notice the shell pink glaze that overlays the blue cranes, this was custom ordered from Wutai and each piece has their wedding date and initials on it. It is truly a one of a kind set." Ellie explains, pretending that Aerith had been asking about her china. "Unfortunately one of the saucers disappeared, so it's not a complete set. But it's very rare nonetheless, isn't it, Yuffie?"
"You know what happens to bad girls?" Reno asked.
"Oh, I know I deserve to be punished!" the woman replied.
"Yuffie? Why don't you tell them how rare this Wutaian china is?" Ellie requested as a muted sound of what they thought was flesh being slapped came through the wall. "Yuffie? Are you okay?"
"The Xingalai china hasn't been made for a hundred years, the factory was destroyed when a rebel faction attempted a failed military coup against the House of Kisaragi." Yuffie says in a strained voice. "Can't you hear that, Mrs...I mean Ellie?"
"Hear what?" Ellie asked innocently.
"Reno's having sex!" Tifa accused her.
"Oh, did I forget to warn you? He and his women can be quite loud, so I just quit wearing my hearing aid when I'm home. Old age, you know. Don't pay any attention to him, he's just too busy having a blast with all the wrong women to realize he needs to find the right one." she smiled benevolently at the three young woman. Tifa was extremely fidgety in her chair, Yuffie looked a bit confused, and Aerith blinked constantly while her cheeks were redder than an apple. "I have other Wutaian treasures if you'd like to see them."
"Yes, I would." Aerith stood up, needing to get out of that room.
"Me too." Yuffie reluctantly stood up as well and joined them by the door. She knew it was wrong to listen, but it made her feel...different...and she was curious.
"Tifa?" Ellie asked sweetly.
Tifa wasn't listening to her, she was looking down at the floor, muttering Hojo's name over and over again, wondering why it wasn't working this time as she heard Reno's woman get louder and louder. She couldn't help but picture herself in that woman's place, having his well-formed body cover hers as he thrust into her again and again, until she...""Hojo, Hojo, HojOOOOOH!" Tifa cried out just as Reno's woman did, causing her friends to stare at her in surprise. "I...I need some fresh air!" she said and rushed out to the balcony.
"Fresh air sounds good." Aerith said and followed her.
"What was that?" the blonde asked Reno as he unlocked the handcuffs.
"I dunno, I'll go check on her in a minute. My neighbor's an elderly lady." he explained. "But I'm gonna go have a cigarette on the balcony now. Those handcuffs weren't too tight, were they?"
"Nope. If they had been, I would have let you know. Or I would have just sent my sister after you." the blonde smiled mischievously. "Bertha would make mincemeat out of you. "Can I take a shower before I get dressed?"
"Yeah, just use the blue towels. The white ones are mine." he said as he headed out to the balcony, disbelieving any woman could best him in a fight.
"Tell me about Cloud." Ellie asked Yuffie once they were alone and looking at the older woman's jewelry collection.
"Cloud?" Yuffie hadn't expected that question. He had been on her mind more than she liked lately. She hadn't thought much about Vincent, her painting his head on Reno's body had turned out to pretty much ruin both men for her as romantic prospects. "He's um...only a few inches taller than us. And he's got blonde hair, and sky blue eyes."
"I didn't mean his appearance." Ellie noticed how Yuffie slightly blushed as she talked about him. "Tell me about his relationship with Tifa."
"They were childhood sweethearts, and now they're living together and raising two kids." Yuffie replied.
"Now when the last time you saw Tifa so smiley and happy for no reason?" she asked Yuffie, getting more direct since Yuffie didn't seem to understand what she was driving at.
"Never." Yuffie answered her honestly.
"And Cloud, how often do you see him happy?" Ellie continued her questioning.
"Never." Yuffie repeated. "But it's not like I see him alot or anything."
Mrs. Beasley gave Yuffie an appraising glance as her voice slightly changed when she clarified her answer. "Would you like to see him more and make both of them happy?"
"How?" Yuffie asked her.
"My husband gave me these cherry earrings in front of my entire family to commemorate my becoming a woman on my sweet sixteenth as a joke. It was soon after they discovered I truly wasn't and we got married." Ellie said. "There's no more personal gift you can give your beau, and if you play your cards right and he's the honourable sort, he's not going anywhere." she said suggestively putting them into Yuffie's hand.
"I...I couldn't do that to Tifa. She'd never forgive me." Yuffie pointed out.
"If she and Cloud aren't happy together, she'd never forgive herself for wasting their lives in a miserable relationship." Ellie retorted. "And if nothing else, maybe this will be the wake-up call Cloud needs to be happy with Tifa. It's just like sex for the first time, at least when it's right. It'll hurt at first, but the payoff is more than worth it."
"What's been going on with you, Teef?" Aerith asked her gently as they stood on the porch.
"I don't want to be alo..." Tifa was interrupted by Reno's sliding glass door opening as he sauntered onto his porch, still naked, and plopped down in a chair there, grabbing the lighter and pack of cigarettes on the little glass table next to the chair and having his smoke. He noticed Aerith and Tifa staring at him.
"Oh hey you two. Is Mrs. B okay?" he asked with genuine concern. "I heard an odd noise coming from her place a moment ago."
Aerith looked like she had just swallowed a bug while Tifa let loose. "Can't you ever be decent and put some damned clothes on?" she spat at him. "Not everyone needs to see what a great body you have!"
Not understanding what her problem was, he snapped back. "Hey, you've already seen all this. If you don't like it, don't look. This is my balcony and you don't even live here, lady."
Tifa didn't even understand why she was mad herself, so she stormed back inside. "I'm going home now, anyone else wants a ride, this is your last chance!"
"I'm ready to go." Yuffie said with a guilty look on her face as she stuffed something into her pocket.
"Thank you for inviting us." Aerith told Ellie as they were leaving.
"It was fun, and think about what I said." Ellie replied before she closed the door.
"Think about what? What did she say to you?" Aerith asked Yuffie.
"Just some relationship advice." Yuffie answered, looking down at her hands and starting to fidget with them.
"But you're not in a relationship." Aerith remarked as they got into Tifa's jeep.
"That's what she thinks my problem is." Yuffie explained.
"Just stay away from Reno." Tifa vented. "He's..." she couldn't finish, because she wasn't sure if she was mad at him for having sex or Cloud for abandoning her.
Cloud was surprised to get a text from Yuffie a few days later. He was glad it wasn't from Tifa or Aerith at least. Could you help me with something at my Wutai penthouse? it said. Even though he was worried it might be about Tifa, he replied asking when she needed him there. He preferred Yuffie's company out of Tifa's friends, since she was the only one who never made him feel guilty for anything, even though Tifa didn't understand his feelings, and Aerith didn't know he felt guilty about his failure to reunite her with Zack.
Reno stared at his phone in disbelief. I want to make a trade with you. Why would Tifa text him something that sounded like such a blatant proposition? Interested in finding out what was going on, he replied that he'd be free next week and would meet her at her apartment.
