Six months later
"I know your people have different customs, but why a wedding dress that's half-black and half-green?" Tifa asked Aerith as they left the bridal store where Aerith had placed her special order.
"The black signifies your death, well I mean the death of who you were and your loneliness, and the green is to ensure growth of your new life and your happiness." Aerith smiled. Zack still had some memory loss, but he now remembered enough that he had proposed to her over the weekend, and she didn't want to wait any longer, so the wedding was scheduled to take place in two weeks, just long enough to get all the preparations made and make sure the guests could free up their schedule.
"Okay so wedding and bridesmaid dresses are now done, and we ordered the wedding invitations online, gift registry was also done online, so that just leaves the cake, music, rehearsal dinner, and bachelorette party." Tifa looked at her wedding planning checklist that she had started when Aerith asked her to be the Maid of Honor and help out.
"Oh, I want to invite Mrs. Beasley too, but she hasn't gotten herself an email address yet. Would you mind hand-delivering her one, and asking her and the other Stitching Bitches to do my wedding cake?" Aerith asked. "I'd deliver the invitation myself, but Zack's parents are flying in early, since they haven't met me yet, only heard Zack talk about me when he made his first trip back home a few weeks ago."
"Yeah, I can do that." Tifa replied, thinking how she hadn't seen Ellie for a while, but then she'd been really busy lately.
Tifa made a beeline for the free bar at the wedding reception. Seeing Zack and Aerith's happiness, and a very pregnant Yuffie with a very attentive Cloud had made her want to drown her lonely sorrows. "What can I get you, Miss?" the bartender asked.
"The strongest drink you have." Tifa demanded.
"You own your own bar and you don't know the name of what you want to drink?" a voice said behind her.
"Reno! What are you doing here? I didn't see you at the wedding." Tifa was surprised to see him again, since she hadn't seen him since the flight home from Icicle.
"I'm security, not a guest, so you weren't supposed to see me. I don't do weddings unless I'm paid to." he explained. "So how come you own a bar and don't know what you want to drink?"
"I don't really drink, and I sold the bar." Tifa replied. After she got back from Icicle, she had reluctantly realized she couldn't go on like she had been, not with Cloud out of the picture. So she had decided to sell the bar and figure out what to do with her life, besides the painting classes she regularly attended.
"Well, it's funner to sample everything." Reno said something to the bartender who put out two shot glasses and five different bottles. "Okay let's start with these."
"Hey man, you're supposed to be protecting the guests, not getting drunk on the clock." Rude found Reno and Tifa at a little table by themselves with the five bottles half an hour later.
"I am." Reno smugly told his partner. "You forget this woman is a highly skilled martial artist, and if she gets drunk, she can be a threat, so I'm keeping an eye on her."
"Yeah right…if Tseng or Rufus catches you, you're on your own." Rude told him.
"I don't think I have to worry about that." Reno said as he noticed Mrs. Beasley approaching the table where Tseng and Rufus were seated.
"Well, hello you fine young hotties, I'll just take this empty seat if you don't mind." Ellie sat down between them. She opened her large bag and took out a ball of yarn and her knitting needles. "Wasn't that such a lovely wedding? It's about time Aerith got married so she could learn how great sex is, don't you agree?" she asked as Tseng and Rufus just stared at her. "Oh, where are my manners? I should have introduced myself, I'm Ellie Beasley, proud founding member of the Stitching Bitches."
"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Beasley." Tseng and Rufus blurted out automatically, their ingrained manners the only thing allowing them to speak.
"Would you mind holding this for me?" Ellie handed her ball of yarn to Rufus. "It's such a shame that one can't hold balls in their hand and knit at the same time, isn't it?" she winked at him as she started knitting. "Why are there are no women sitting with you two? If you're both single, don't you know a wedding is a perfect place to pick up women?"
"I...um…my work comes before a social life." Tseng answered first, stuttering in surprise at the older woman's uninhibitedness.
"My rascally neighbor Reno is a workaholic too, but he always makes time for women. You might want to consider signing up to be a model for an art class, it works wonders since the women know exactly what they're getting ahead of time. Tifa was in the class when Reno modeled, and look at them now." Ellie said, gesturing in their direction.
"I like this one the best." Tifa tapped the blue bottle.
"You probably would. It's for lightweights. This one however, is the real deal." Reno grabbed the amber bottle. "And I'll take another shot of it now."
"You shouldn't drink so much, it's not good for you." Tifa told him, feeling slightly buzzed. "I'm done for now."
"I can hold my liquor as well as I can hold my women." Reno smirked.
"Don't you ever get bored with it all? I mean the lack of stability in your life." Tifa was genuinely curious about him.
"Why? Life isn't stable to begin with. I ain't got no complaints. I like the people I work with in a job that's never dull, I get paid plenty, never sleep alone if I don't want to, and I get to travel all over the world. My life is perfect!" Reno informed her after he downed the shot glass.
"I wish mine was." Tifa sighed. "But I'm just going to watch everyone else have their happily ever after, I guess."
Reno frowned. He didn't like depressed women, and then he remembered what Cloud had said when they had dropped him off in Wutai. "So why do you like daffodils?"
Tifa couldn't help but giggle at his question. "Ask me again."
"Ask you again why you like daffodils?" Reno was puzzled at her response.
Tifa giggled harder. "You said daffodils!"
"Okay yeah, you've definitely had enough to drink." Reno said when Tifa's giggles turned into hiccups and her face started turning red. She tried to get up out of her chair to go to the ladies' room, but her heel got caught in one of the rungs and she fell to the floor before he could catch her. "Come on, let's get you up off your knees." he told her, helping her back up.
Tifa stared at him as she also remembered something from their helicopter ride. "You…you said something about me being on my knees in the helicopter, didn't you?"
"Oh…um…that was nothing." Reno felt embarrassed once again, since he had realized during his recovery in Junon that Rude had been right, Tifa was classier than most of the women he knew. "Weren't you going to the bathroom?"
"What did you mean?" Tifa persisted with a stubborn glint in her eyes as she tried to get her hiccups under control.
"Oral sex." Reno finally muttered.
"You wanted me to do that to you? Why?" Tifa wasn't sure if she was more offended or intrigued.
"It was just a comment." Reno said, downing another shot.
"So you don't want me?" Tifa demanded.
"I thought we've been over this before." Reno reminded. "Besides, you're looking for a committed long-term relationship. I'm not."
"What's wrong with wanting to be loved?" Tifa indignantly fired the question at him.
"Nothing at all." Reno agreed. "I told you, I've loved tons of women, and it was definitely worthwhile every time."
"Did you love me?" she asked wistfully.
"Yeah, sure, whatever." Reno felt his cheeks heat up more. "Do you have to talk about feelings? That's such a buzz kill."
"You're cute when you're blushing." Tifa smiled. Catching a glimpse of Cloud and Yuffie acting all lovey-dovey, she impulsively leaned forward and kissed Reno full on the lips.
"What'd ya do that for?" Reno's cheeks became more inflamed. Tifa tried to answer but she started hiccupping again as Aerith approached their table with Zack in tow.
"There you are, I was worried about you when you disappeared when we got here." Aerith said, startling Tifa into more hiccups at the bride's sudden appearance.
"You sure were a beautiful bride for a Dirty Girl." Reno told her to give Tifa a chance to catch her breath as Aerith glanced at the shot glasses and bottles on the table and the fading blush on Reno's cheeks.
"Thanks, Flaming Spikes." A slightly mischievous smile appeared on the new bride's face over the use of their old nicknames for each other back in the day, his related to his hair, and hers about her gardening. "It's time to throw my bouquet, do you wanna try for it or go home, Teef?"
"I'll try my luck." Tifa managed to reply, and followed Aerith over to the middle of the banquet hall.
"Everyone ready?" Aerith called out to all the single women who had gathered for the bouquet toss, who all exclaimed their readiness. "Three…two…one!" Aerith threw her bouquet behind her, and Tifa almost caught it, but another hiccup caused her to miss by deflecting it, right into Elena's hands, who was wondering why she was even bothering with something so silly. But once she had the bouquet in her hands, she looked towards the table where Tseng and Rufus still sat with Mrs. Beasley, and Rude was there as well talking to his bosses. They all looked horrified at her checking them out with the bouquet in her hands, and she smiled mysteriously. Tifa started walking away with a sad expression on her face and headed for the door, so Aerith whispered something in Zack's ear, who looked perplexed but nodded and went over to Reno's table.
"Reno, Tifa needs to go home now, would you mind doing the honors?" Zack asked him.
"Sure, there aren't any women worth staying around for anyway." Reno replied, glad to have an excuse to leave the wedding, and headed over to the entrance. "Hey, wait up!" he called out to the fleeing Tifa.
"Are you following me?" Tifa wasn't happy to have her attempt at a quiet escape foiled.
"Just wondering if you wanted to blow this popsicle stand together." Reno offered.
Tifa's first thought was to object so she could be upset in private, but she realized she probably shouldn't drive herself. Even though she didn't think she was really drunk, she didn't want to take any chances. "Fine."
"We'll use your car, I just need your keys." he told her.
"Here you go." Tifa rummaged in her purse and handed him the keys to her jeep.
"Okay, let's get outta here." Reno shoved the keys in his pocket until they reached her jeep and he unlocked the passenger door for her before getting in the driver's seat and starting the car.
