Disclaimer : I do not own FFVII, Crisis Core, Advent Children, or any of the characters that you recognise. As much as I love these guys, they belong to those other guys.

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Chapter 22 : Silver Scars

They lay in silence for a while, just listening to the rhythmic breathing of one another. Tifa watched her hand rise and fall on his chest as she wondered what he was thinking. She didn't know herself what this was between them, if anything. She was curious if he felt the same. She didn't want to come across as some typical clingy girl though. She wasn't even sure if she wanted anything else other than one night anyway. She slid her hand down to his hip, to the beginning of the scar he had shown her before. The duvet was lying far enough down that his hips were visible along with the thin trail of red hair that started just below his navel. She blinked and wondered how she hadn't noticed that before, but figured she had been so transfixed but the scar that anything else hadn't really registered. Slowly she trailed her fingers up, following the scar in the same way she had the night before, with more confidence in her touch this time. Reno squirmed a little and she stopped her hand. His own fingers traced small circles on her shoulder.

"Ya don't hafta stop. Just tickles a bit is all."

"Sorry."

"Don't be. Feels nice. Same as it did last night, although we were both a lot less naked then." He pointed out, his voice coming out like a purr. Tifa continued tracing his scar as she smiled.

"Yeah. Did not see this coming."

"Me neither. Though I sure as hell hoped it would." Reno admitted. Tifa lifted her head and craned her neck slightly to look at him. He was still lying with his eyes closed, but as she moved he opened them to look down at her.

"Did you?"

"You are brutally hot, Tifa. I'd be an idiot not to wanna have you naked in my bed." His grin took on a cat-that-got-the-cream quality. Tifa shifted up to lean on her elbow so she could look down on his face slightly. His hand trailed down to rest on her lower back. "Though I gotta say, I don't think my attraction for you is just 'cause yer smokin'." He added almost lazily as his fingers gently tickled her skin, causing goosebumps to raise on her skin. She looked down at the hand of hers that still rested on his chest.

"Really?"

"Fuck yeah." He reached over with his free hand to take hold of her chin gently, turning her head back to face his. "I already told ya I've had a lot of fun bein' trapped in here with you. I reckon I'd be goin' mad if I was stuck in here myself."

"Pretty sure you could have had this kind of fun with any girl." Tifa said airily, trying to be nonchalant and ignore the fact that Reno was basically telling her that it was maybe more than just physical for him. She was scared if she acknowledged that, she would have to realise it had been more than that for her too. Reno shook his head as he let his hand fall to rest on hers atop his chest.

"Nah. The naked stuff, yeah to an extent. I coulda had sex with someone else to entertain myself for a while. But that's only been a small part of it. Trust me Tifa, there is no-one alive or dead on this Planet that I would rather be lyin' in bed with right now."

Tifa let her eyes drop to their hands as Reno interlocked his fingers with hers, her heart fluttering slightly at his words. Did he really mean that? She felt a little embarrassed and sought to change the subject. She could feel him watching her and she bit her lip slightly, trying to will away the butterflies in her stomach. She looked down at his stomach. He was lean with a slim waist, his ab muscles rippling under his skin and seemed to be accentuated by the dull light in the room. Tifa had a pretty impressive stomach herself, but that didn't stop her appreciating his body. Her gaze traveled down to where his scar began and she saw that he also had a subtle V of muscle below his navel, leading down to under where the duvet lay. She knew what lay beneath there already and she felt a sudden ache between her legs, but not one of pain or discomfort. She shifted slightly, trying to forget about the sudden flush of arousal. When she managed to pull her mind back out of the gutter, she noticed that the large scar he had was not alone. His torso was like a road map, covered in silver lines in varying lengths and widths. A small gasp escaped her throat as she gently un-linked her hand from his and started to trace some of the marks with her fingers.

"There's so many..." She drifted off, seemingly fascinated. Reno chuckled slightly.

"Yeah. More people have knives than guns in the slums. And I wasn't always as good at fightin'. Always quick, though. Some of them are my own fault from squeezin' though small gaps and jumping off buildings into the unknown."

"Why does that not surprise me."

"You ain't exactly got off scott-free yourself." He pointed out, taking her hand in his again and turned it so he could look at her knuckles. They stood out on her otherwise delicate hands, enlarged from being broken and hardening over and over, covered in small scars. Rude's hands looked similar. Tifa watched him pull her hand up to his mouth and kiss each knuckle. She felt her face heating up again. He kept surprising her with little intimate gestures like that.

"Reno..." She almost whispered as he placed a final kiss on the back of her hand. She was about to speak again when he surprised her by suddenly sitting up, his grin turning mischievous. She let out a yelp as he pulled her closer, causing her to drop back onto her back.

"While we're playing the exploring game..." He trailed off, a playfulness to his voice. He moved on his front, scootching down so his head was in line with her stomach as he propped himself up on his elbow. She felt his hand move over her skin just below her bust, the callouses on his hands giving his touch just enough roughness for it to feel far from innocent. He started tracing shapes in her skin and she realised he was tracing her tattoo. She looked down at him, but he was staring at her stomach intently, obviously paying attention to the details. The design started off with reds, oranges and yellows, but the tail feathers finished off with teals, pinks and purples. He was tracing every line, reminding Tifa of how it had felt to have done. It had been painful, but Tifa was always good at managing pain so she had managed to sit still during the process. Reno's touch tickled rather than cause discomfort though, and she squirmed a little. He suddenly looked up at her, his wicked grin returning. "This is seriously sexy, Lockhart. You know how hard it was to keep my hands off this last night?" Reno informed her. He had never had the free time to dedicate to actually getting and caring for tattoos himself, but he found them extremely attractive, especially when they were well done and accentuated the wearer's body. Seeing the bright ink against Tifa's pale skin just screamed for him to touch it. He ran his fingers over it again before pressing his lips to the centre of the design, his hot breath earning a small gasp from her. He grinned against her skin before he pulled back slightly. He turned his attention to the reason she had gotten the tattoo. The slightly jagged and wide pale scar wound its way down her torso between her breasts, and as soon as she realised he was looking at it she squirmed again, but this time he could tell if was from discomfort. He pressed his lips back against her skin, covering every inch of the scar. By the time he was done, her breath had quickened slightly and he looked up at her to see her staring at him with heavy lidded eyes.

"I know it's... ugly." She breathed, almost as if she was apologising for it. Reno frowned slightly and shifted up the bed to press his lips against hers, mustering as much passion as he could in a single kiss. When he pulled away, Tifa's head came forward as if to try and prolong the contact. He grinned a little.

"There is nothin' about you that's ugly, Lockhart. Especially not this. He ran his fingers down the scar, making her shiver. "We practically match."

"I guess. I know most guys don't like seeing girls all scarrred up."

Most guys are fuckin' idiots." Reno managed to growl before he kissed her fiercely again, trying to rid her mind of any thoughts that she was imperfect because of her scars. This was obviously something Tifa had been told in the past and for some reason, it enraged Reno more than he cared to admit. If most guys couldn't see that she got this scar from surviving an attack at the hands of one of the greatest warriors who'd ever lived, they were not worth her time or her thoughts. As Tifa wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back with equal passion and pulling him over on top of her, he decided there and then that they weren't going to sleep tonight. He was going to spend the night making her feel like her body was the most desirable thing on the Planet, scars and all. Especially her scars, in fact. He wanted her to feel like he'd never wanted anyone more than he wanted her. He was an expert at making his lovers feel like they were the very centre of the universe to him for a night.

He pushed back the little voice in his head that smirked at him that it wouldn't require any acting on his part right now to believe that she was that for him right now. And maybe not just for tonight.

AN : Oooooo there's a little spark of something more definitely igniting between these two! I promise the fluff will give way to something else soon xD

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