A sob tore from Aerith's throat as she threw her arms around Zack, to reassure herself that he was flesh and blood while tears of joy rolled down her cheeks. Tifa felt her own eyes start to water as she watched the happy reunion, then Rude came back down with the medical supplies and food, asking her to help him set Reno's broken leg. Luckily he was still unconscious, only coming to as Rude was wrapping his leg with an ace bandage, using Reno's weapon as a splint. Tifa was leaning over him in her low-cut tight winter sweater, starting to clean his head wound when his eyes opened to her breasts almost shoved in his face, and he automatically licked his lips.
"Oh, you're awake. I don't think your head wound is serious, but your broken leg is another story." Tifa informed him, a frosty edge creeping into her voice when she saw Reno's customary smirk appearing on his face as his eyes casually sauntered upwards to look in hers.
"I'll be fine in no time." he replied nonchalantly. "I'm a Turk after all. And I don't suppose you would mind handing me some food?" Tifa bit back the response that popped into her head, and grabbed one of the food packs and handed it to Reno before trying to bandage his head, while Rude gently informed Aerith of Zack's memory issues and warned her to go slow with him, to make sure she wouldn't shock him into further memory loss.
"That's the best I can do." Tifa said when she finished with his head, waiting for his "I told you so." about Cloud, but he just asked her for a spoon and fork.
"I told you, I'll be fine." Reno mumbled as he hungrily shoveled the food in his mouth. When he looked at her when he was done to ask if they could spare more food, he noticed she was distracted by watching Aerith feed Zack with a wistful expression on her face. Cloud also noticed, while he and Yuffie ate as well, wisely keeping away from Tifa, but he was more interested in how Reno and Tifa were interacting.
"Okay, how are we going to get Reno out of here?" Tifa asked when everyone was done eating. She felt out of sorts, not only by being surrounded by the people she never wanted to see again, but by Reno treating her with casual indifference. Not to mention seeing Zack and Aerith's reunion only served to reinforce her loneliness as she played nursemaid to the man she had been so wildly intimate with, and having her hands on him again put her off more.
"We'll get everyone else out, then use the rope to make a harness with for him." Rude replied. "He'll go up with me." Yuffie went up first, followed by Cloud, Zack, and Aerith. Tifa climbed up next, and threw the rope down to Rude who made the harness and secured Reno to his back, then climbed up slowly.
"I think we'll have to pull Reno in one of the sleds." Aerith said in one of the first sentences she had uttered since she had been reunited with Zack. "It's too far back to Icicle for Rude to support him."
So they put all the supplies in one sled and Reno in the other. Tifa and Rude took turns pulling Reno while Zack and Aerith pulled the supplies sled. "Stop!" Reno shouted when they reached the helicopter, and crawled out to it. He dug in the snow and soon uncovered two of the rotor blades. "Dammit!" he cursed as he saw one of them was bent. "So much for flying you outta here, old girl." He crawled on the snow back to the sled and got back in it with a morose expression on his face.
"Back to our tent then." Tifa said, unexpectedly feeling a mixture of sympathy for Reno laced with humor at how he was almost pouting over the damaged helicopter. She hadn't known how important his helicopter was to him. They made good time back to their tent, even with an injured party member, thanks to having already made a decent path, and the good weather holding, cold but clear.
"I don't think we should bother with the heater tonight." Aerith suggested. "With all seven of us, it's gonna be kinda crowded and our body heat should make it comfortable, since the tent was only made for two."
"That's fine with me." Reno said, crawling out of the sled again and claiming one of the sleeping bags.
"There's not enough to go around, you can't hog it all to yourself." Rude protested.
"So who wants to share with me?" Reno asked. "And you can't do it, buddy." he quickly told Rude.
"Cloud and Yuffie will share the other sleeping bag, Rude can use a blanket, and we'll use the other two." Aerith announced, putting her hand over Zack's.
"So I'll share the sleeping bag with him I guess." Tifa said through clenched teeth. "If you try anything, I'll make sure you never fly again." she whispered fiercely to Reno as she got in the sleeping bag with him, as tense as a bowstring.
"I told ya before, I don't want chicks who don't want me." Reno replied before he started snoring.
Tifa lay there in momentary disbelief at his apparent dismissal of her before she fell asleep too.
