Chapter 10

Tifa quietly made her way out of the room and slowly padded out into the living room. She had never felt more self-conscious than she ever did now.

'Stop it Tifa. Don't be stupid.'

While in the shower, she recalled the earlier incident of her accidentally catching him changing his clothes and realized she had overreacted by being such a doofus. It wasn't like she had never seen Cloud changing his clothes before while they were on those long journeys and one had to simply make do with whatever you have.

'Not that I've seen Cloud more than half-naked like that. Have I?'

She quickly shook her head to get rid of the thoughts.

Her brown eyes scanned the quiet room, besides the sounds of the roaring thunder and heavy rain outside, for Reno.

From the back of the couch she caught sight of his red hair spilling over at one end of the couch.

Tifa cautiously took a few steps closer.

He was lying down on the couch with one arm draped over his face, covering his eyes as the other lay on his stomach.

"Are you…alright?"

Her voice was barely above a whisper.

He didn't reply. She tried again.

"Are you alright?" She asked a little louder than before.

Reno barely mumbled something in response.

Her eyebrow shot up in question.

"Reno?"

Again, he gave a barely audible response.

She sighed and leaned over the couch to catch what he was saying. He mumbled again.

"I don't feel so cool?" She repeated in confusion.

Reno removed his arm from his eyes and sighed exasperatedly.

"I said," emphasizing 'said' with a glare, "I don't feel so good."

"Oh."

It was only then that she noticed he was paler than usual and his lips looked a little blue. Her hand reached over to feel his forehead.

"Reno, you're sick. You're having a fever."

"Wow. Holy Chocobos. She makes the discovery of the year." He answered sarcastically as he turned over on his side.

She bit her lip to prevent herself from giving a comeback of his sarcasm. She wasn't going to argue with a sick person.

"Do you need a doctor?"

"No."

"Then did you take any medicine for the fever?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Just because."

Unsatisfied with his answer, she went around the couch and bent down on her knees to be on the same height level as he was.

Reno turned around to face the other way.

"Reno." She said in a warning tone.

"What?"

"Why don't you want to take something for your fever?"

"I said I just don't want to. Leave me alone."

"I can't leave you alone. Your fever will get worse."

No answer.

She eyed him and noticed he was shivering slightly.

"Reno…" She tried again.

"Go away."

"Fine." She replied in annoyance.

If he didn't need her help, then she wasn't going to help him. She stood up and briskly walked away to head back to the room.

"Stupid red-head." Tifa mumbled under her breath.

She stepped into the room that was Reno's and flopped down on the bed. Her eyes closed.

'His bed's so comfortable.'

Tifa crawled under the sheets, squirmed, stretched and moved around to make herself feel more at ease and to find a comfortable position. Finally satisfied with a position, she settled into the pillow and closed her eyes again, hoping to get some sleep.

Just as she closed her eyes, an image of Reno popped into her mind. She tried to erase the image in her mind but it was no use. Her conscience was bugging her like hell and it wasn't going to leave her anytime soon.

She sighed dejectedly and sat up.

'Alright. Fine.'

Walking back into the living room, she peeked over the couch to find Reno hugging himself to keep himself warm. She carefully threw the duvet over his shaking body.

Feeling the sudden warmth, Reno's eyes opened to find Tifa standing behind the couch, looking at him.

"Whether you like it or not, I am going to take care of you and help you get better. So keep all your sarcastic remarks to yourself and go to sleep. I will wake you up when it's time to eat and to take your medicine."

Reno opened his mouth to protest but she quickly continued before he could say anything.

"I know, you don't like medicine. And if I didn't know any better, I'd say you're deathly afraid of medicines and doctors. However, since you're sick, I will not embarrass you and only hold you to that later when you get better. Now shut up and get back to sleep."

With that, she headed into kitchen, leaving Reno to stare wide-eyed at her words.

---------------------------------------------

"Reno. Hey…"

His blue eyes groggily opened at the sound of his name.

"Hey, wake up."

Tifa gently shook him on the shoulder.

"You need to eat something. Come on."

She carefully pulled him up and helped him to sit up.

Reno's eyes slowly scanned his surroundings, not exactly remembering why she was with him in the first place. His eyes widened at the sight before him.

What was once 'his' place with all the mess was now, immaculately clean. He swore it was so clean that the dust would probably be afraid to show up there.

'What the hell did she do?'

"Here."

He eyed the bowl that was being held out in front of him.

"It's chicken soup. Only more chicken soup-like and less salt and what-nots." She answered with a smirk.

Reno almost blushed at the reminder of his sad pathetic attempts of cooking.

He took the bowl from her without a word.

"Okay, I didn't know if you were the type of guy who would go nuts if someone else other than yourself touched your things, but I just thought that cleaning up this place would make this a better and healthier place for a person to actually live in. And I promise, I did not mess anything else up and did not go through your stuff either."

He nodded in response.

"Good. Now once you're done with that," Tifa pointed to the bowl in his hands, "you're going to have to take this here." She held up a tiny white sphere to let him see.

He shuddered at the sight of it, to which unfortunately for him, she had seen and started to giggle as he glared at her.

"It's not funny to laugh at a sick person you know?"

"I'm sorry, but how old are you to be afraid of medicine? Or better yet, a single, small, defenseless thing." She replied in between laughter.

Reno's face went red at her comment.

"I just have a bad history with medicine."

"Oh yeah? How bad could that be?"

"You don't stop once you get hold of something like this don't you?"

She grinned and shook her head.

"No, not really." She replied innocently.

He sighed and knew he was in for a deep grilling.

"Come on, tell me."

Tifa looked at him with anticipation.

"No." He said as he turned away from her gaze.

"Oh come on. Don't be such a wet blanket Reno. I promise I won't tell anyone else."

"You make it sound like it's a big secret."

"Is it not?" She teased.

He groaned in frustration, not believing that he had gotten himself in such a situation.

Outside, the storm was brewing and it looked like it was getting worse by the hour.

She crawled into the couch next to him and made herself comfortable by taking a share of the duvet.

He turned to look at her, slightly surprised with her actions. The sable-haired girl only looked back at him with a mischievous grin and what seemed like a sparkle in her eyes. She looked like a five year old on Christmas morning.

"Tell me. Quick!" She ordered.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

Before he could say anything, a loud clasp of thunder was heard before a click sound followed and the lights went out. Saved by the thunder.

"Reno?" Tifa spoke out in the dark.

"Yeah. I think the storm hit the powers or something."

"Do you have candles?"

"Oh sure. I carry them everywhere with me. In fact, I probably have some in my pocket right now. Let me check my detailed list of candle supplies beforehand." He replied.

Tifa answered his sarcastic remark with a smack of her hand on his arm.

"Ow!"

"Nice one smart-ass. Now, where are the candles?"

Reno rubbed his arm and stared at her irritably in the dark. Though he can't really see her, but he could well make out her figure.

"It's in one of the…"

"One of the…?" She prodded.

"Uh…"

Reno squinted to think. He suddenly realized he had no idea where was what in his apartment.

"Let me guess, you don't know where you had put the candles."

Even in the dark, Reno could make out the annoyed look on her face. He smiled.

"You're hopeless." She declared as she pushed the duvet off herself.

He heard her feet touched the floor as she slowly made her way to the shelf drawers located nearby. A few rustling and slamming sounds filled the dark room.

"Found it?" He questioned.

"Nope."

Tifa brushed her hair back exasperatedly and tried to figure out where he could have possibly kept the candles in his apartment.

"Do you even have candles?" She asked out loud.

"Yeah. One…"

"One?" Tifa repeated.

"Uh, maybe two or three." He quickly replied.

"It better be."

"You know, you're scary when you're mad."

"Good to know."

Deciding not to say anything else, Reno continued with his chicken soup as Tifa continued with her candle-hunting.

Moments later, a faint glow appeared from the kitchen.

'Must have found her candles.' Reno thought.

A sudden loud crash was heard from the kitchen, followed by a short scream.

Reno quickly tore himself away from the couch and rushed to the kitchen.

A broken glass that was once filled with water and a crouching brown-haired girl was on the floor.

He carefully made his way over to her.

As he got closer, he realized it was not just water on the floor, but the glistening of something red as well, blood.

"Tifa!"

Tifa looked up with tears in her brown eyes.

Reno crouched down next to her to check the damage. She slowly removed her hands to reveal a deep cut on the sole of her left foot. Blood was oozing out of the wound as Reno quickly grabbed hold of a kitchen towel from one of the drawers and wrapped it tightly around the wound, hoping to stop the blood flow.

"It hurts." Tifa whimpered softly.

"Can you stand?"

She quickly shook her head.

Reno took the blood-tainted towel away and examined her foot closely.

"Fuck. A shard of glass is in the wound, that's why it's hurting you so badly. We need to take it out."

"No!"

Reno looked up at her in surprise.

"I just…it will hurt a lot, won't it?"

"It will even more so if you don't take it out." He answered matter-of-factly.

The both of them looked at the wound again.

"Tifa. I have to take the shard out or else the bleeding won't stop. And if it doesn't stop, you and I both know what would happen. Just…trust me okay? It will hurt, but if you want, you can hold onto me. Still, no matter what, I am going to have to take that thing out. Okay?" He explained softly.

Tifa took a deep breath and slowly nodded.

"Good."

"Are you…are you just going to pull it out?" Tifa asked hesitantly.

"Hell no."

Reno stood up to one of the drawers, took out what looked like a scalpel and grabbed a lighter lying on the kitchen counter. He proceeded to disinfect the scalpel with the fire before grabbing a first aid box from the cabinet above.

"How do you have these stuff?" Tifa stared at the scalpel in his hands in disconcertment.

"Turk." Reno answered simply as he sat down beside her and placed the candle closer to them to get better light.

He swiped the blade with a cotton that was dabbed with a little alcohol after gently disinfecting the area with the cotton. Reno looked back up at her.

"Ready?"

Tifa nodded and had one hand tugged onto the side of his t-shirt as another clenched on the floor. She bit her lower lip as Reno gently prodded the scalpel in to take the glass out. She bit harder when the blade made contact with the glass. A faint drip of blood appeared at her lower lip where she had bit too hard. Her grip on his t-shirt tightened.

Reno knew she was in pain and he wanted to end that pain for her as quick as he could. He hated seeing her in pain. The tears threatened to fall from her brown eyes but she looked determined not to let it fall. He carefully removed the shard of glass and quickly pressed a clean towel to the wound.

Reno felt a bead of sweat slide from his forehead. He breathed in relief and looked up at Tifa.

She was slowly taking deep breaths to calm herself down.

"I thought you'd have faced worst things than this." He joked in an attempt to lighten the situation.

"It still doesn't change the fact that it hurts whenever one gets injured. You can never get used to the pain."

He nodded in understanding.

Gently removing the towel away, he examined the wound.

"Looks like you don't really need stitches for that. But you should, just in case."
Tifa nodded.

"However, I'm no pro at that. Heck, that was Rude's job. I hate the sight of needles."

She giggled slightly at his confession of weakness.

"Very funny Lockheart. Anyway, I'll just get this cleaned up and bandaged first. When the storm dies down, we'll go to a doctor."

Tifa just nodded again. She had never seen such a caring side of Reno before, other than the time she was sick. Never in her life did she imagine Reno with such a heart. He was always the arrogant heartless jerk in her mind, and it now made her felt guilty to have thought of him in such a way.

"Alright done. Now let's get you off this floor." He said as he stood up to put everything away.

Tifa carefully tried to get up without hurting herself even more. However, with the slightest weight on her foot, it made her winced in pain and she knew she couldn't stand up just yet.

Without a word, Reno crouched down with his back to her. He motioned with a hand for her to climb over.

"Reno…" She began.

"Come on. You're not going to walk with that foot."

Hesitantly, she pulled herself on top of him and allowed him to carry her on his back as they walked over to the dark living room. Reno carefully placed her down on the couch.

"Thanks."

He just nodded in acknowledgement.

"Where are you going?"

"To get the candle from the kitchen."

Reno appeared seconds later with the candle in hand. He placed it down on the table and settled himself into the armchair nearby.

"Why are you sitting there?"

"Why shouldn't I?"

"It's cold. I have the duvet here with me. The heater's died because of the storm and you're still sick. Withstanding the cold is not the most ingenious thing for you to do right now." She pointed out.

"Fine."

He trudged over to the couch where she was and sat down beside her. Tifa graciously shared the duvet with him. As she did so, Reno caught sight of her shaking hands when she moved the duvet over.

"You're really feeling cold aren't you?"

She smiled sheepishly.

"Freezing."

"I didn't know you were the kind who'd easily feel the cold."

"Well, now you know."

He smiled.

"Come here."

Reno pulled her over into his arms to provide some body warmth. Without any protest, Tifa just snuggled closer to him and rested her head on his chest, her arms wrapped around him.

"Better?"

"Much better." She answered softly.

Sighing contentedly, he had to admit, he actually enjoyed having her in his arms, but he wasn't going to admit that out loud to her.

On the other hand, Tifa was somewhat happy to be in his arms, not only because of the warmth, but also the feeling of security. The feeling came about when he had first placed his arm over her earlier that day when the weird man was following her.

Neither said anything for a while, both afraid to spoil the moment. Outside, the storm was still going on.

Tifa stared out into the stormy weather as did Reno.

"Hey." Reno finally spoke up.

She turned to look at him.

"So what was the kiss for anyway?" He asked with a mischievous smirk on his face.

Tifa immediately wished to crawl into a hole and never come out again.

"Come on, you can tell me. Don't be such a wet blanket Tifa. I promise I won't tell anyone else." He mimicked her earlier words.

"Shut up Reno."

He laughed.

So did Tifa.

"So?"

Tifa didn't answer but quickly looked away from his gaze.

"I'll take it that you like me?" He suggested mischievously.

"No, I don't." She mumbled.

"Really? Then why aren't you running away from me instead of still having your arms around me right now?"

She looked at him with a pointed stare.

'Wrong words Reno.' He mentally scolded himself for being such an idiot.

"Sorry." He said, hoping to salvage the situation.

For a moment there he thought she would just walk away but as a small smile appeared on her lips, he knew he was safe.

"How do you know if you like someone Reno?"

Reno felt like an unexpected curveball was thrown right into his face at the question.

"I…don't know." He answered truthfully. "You just do? It's not like this is something anyone can just explain like that. It's not as simple as…as say, shooting someone…or stealing something."

Tifa made a face.

"Bad examples to compare with." She stated.

"Right."

She looked at him with a funny look.

"What?" He asked with eyebrows raised.

"You just said 'sorry' to me."

"When?"

"When you made that remark about me not running away, bla bla."

"I did?"

Tifa nodded and smiled.

"That's the first time I've heard you said the word 'sorry'."

"Oh." Reno said as the realization set on him.

"I can't believe I'm the lucky person to hear the famous never-ever-apologize Reno to say sorry. Wow." She teased.

"Ha-ha Lockheart. But don't shift the topic at hand. You can't avoid it forever."

Her face fell.

"I know."

"I'm not rushing you but…crap, this thing is really driving me insane. And if you don't tell me what is it that you feel or think or…"

"I like you."

Her voice was barely audible.

Reno froze and took a look at her. Tifa however, was too embarrassed to look at him, and just buried her face in his t-shirt.

"Did I just hear you say what I think I heard you say?"

She nodded into his t-shirt without a word.

"But I don't know if I heard that correctly. You wanna repeat that?"

She shook her head.

"Okay…well, I thought you said that you were going to have sex with me so if that's right then let's get it on."

"Reno!" Tifa protested with a horrified look.

Reno laughed.

'Some people will never change.' Tifa mused.

"I said, I like you. Not I am going to have sex with you. That's 8 words by the way, 'I like you' has 3 words, so unless you're really deaf then I can't see how you can get it mixed up and come up with that."

"Well, at least I got you to say what I wanted to hear." He replied with a smirk.

"Shut up." She said lightly with an embarrassed smile on her face.

A/N: Thank you to all who reviewed, you guys just make my day. Be it short or long, the reviews are definitely encouraging and sweet. So, here's a new chapter and sorry it took me so long to update this, but I think this is the fastest update I ever had in a while. Lol.

Half of me likes this chapter, and the other half doesn't. It seems like there's something off about it but I don't know what. Anyhow, I hope you guys will enjoy it and if it reeks, lol, sorry for the dissapointment. Sometimes I just want to write something really good...I have it my mind but I can't put it down in words so it would sometimes come out differently than intended. Enough of my ramblings anyway. Have a nice day people and thanks for reading!