Greetings! Another one-shot from me! This time it's a bit longer (Thank GOD!) It is also based on a song (song-fic with no lyrics, as it was once described). I won't tell you which one, so major brownie points to anyone who can guess! (The title is a huge hint—or should be.) I'm considering getting a time line going for the fics I've written so far, so just know that this takes place after "Stupid Questions, Obvious Answers" (aka the fic with the worst name ever.) Anyway, on with the fic.

He usually preferred inviting the girls to HIS place… but he wasn't complaining. He was actually pretty surprised that she'd even taken him to her home at all. He knew it wasn't… well, it wasn't for that. He laughed to himself shortly—he should only BE so lucky. But her motivation for asking him inside was still a mystery.

However, as she turned the key in the lock and opened the door, beaming at him quickly before stepping over the threshold, her reasons became obvious.

The place was quite clearly brand-new, and all hers—she must have been very proud of it and simply dying to show it off.

That would've explained all the inane grinning. It couldn't possibly be for… something else. To reiterate, he should only be so lucky.

Still, it was unusual for him to be invited to a woman's home, and not the other way around.

He followed her in, getting a better view of his surroundings—barren though they were. It was a very recent move, he could tell. Either that, or she'd spent so much on the place itself that she couldn't afford furniture. He could see a few things in the kitchen, and assumed she was smart enough to at least have purchased a bed for herself.

Standing just inside the doorway as she closed the door behind him, he saw her frown slightly before beaming again.

"Come on!" she implored him, grabbing him by the hand and leading him to the middle of what appeared to be the sitting room—if one preferred to sit without a chair.

"Make yourself at home," she said, dropping his hand and turning to head into the kitchen. "Sit anywhere."

He watched her intently as she walked away, paying particular attention to the way she moved and how she looked while doing it. He shook his head, clearing those thoughts from his mind. Dammit Reno! For the last time, that's not why she invited you here!

Looking around again, he noticed a slight problem. "Hey Tifa?" he called.

"Yeah?" She said, poking her head around the corner, then returning from the kitchen, carrying two glasses and a bottle of red wine, which, strangely, was lacking a label.

"You told me to sit, but there's no furniture in here," a smirk played across his face.

She was thoroughly embarrassed, but tried to cover it up by smiling. "Well then Reno… I guess we're sitting on the floor," she offered, promptly plopping down on the carpet. He shrugged and followed suit, landing on her floor with a slight thud. She couldn't suppress a tiny giggle. His eyes narrowed a little because she was laughing at him, but it just made the situation funnier to her. Reno's dignity was at stake, so he sought an escape from his ridicule.

"So uh… what's goin' on here?" he asked, pointing to the bottle in her left hand. He was genuinely curious. No matter how hard he tried to convince himself that she hadn't invited him over for casual sex, she seemed to make moves contradicting that. Then again she could have invited him for… not-casual sex. But either way, he wasn't about to get ahead of himself.

"Oh!" she looked at it almost as though she were surprised to see it. "I'm glad you asked," she said, smiling. She released the cork with a pop that echoed in the empty spaces of her new apartment.

"I've started experimenting with making my own wine," she explained, pouring the substance into a glass. "I think maybe the alcohol content is a little high… Anyway, I was hoping maybe you could try it for me," she stopped all of a sudden. She abruptly started to wonder if it was a bit presumptuous of her to just assume he'd be her personal wine-tester. "I mean… if you wanted to…"

"Of course," he replied with a killer grin.

Tifa blushed, partially because she felt foolish for doubting herself so often. It was mostly because of the way he was smiling at her, but there was no way in hell she was going to admit that, not even to herself.

She took a deep breath, topping off his glass and handing it to him. "I know wine isn't really your thing—" she started.

"Yeah?" he said, having been about to test his drink. "How would you know that?"

"Reno, I'm your bartender," she said, smiling somewhat smugly as she poured some for herself. "I'm supposed to know these things."

He nodded. He liked the way she smiled… He wasn't entirely sure what made him think that, but he couldn't deny it. He found himself staring. He liked other things about her too… but he figured if he were caught staring at the other things he liked he'd find himself in serious pain. He tried to scrape up a little tact.

Glancing at the off-white carpet beneath him, he became very aware and slightly paranoid of the red wine he was holding. God forbid he spill it on her rug, in her brand new house she was so endearingly proud of. He was painstakingly careful in taking a sip of her wine.

"You were right," he said, and she knitted her eyebrows. "Wine really isn't my thing," Her frowned deepened. "But I think… this may be an exception."

Tifa's face lit up. "Do you like it?" she asked, excited but trying to subdue the blatancy of it.

He nodded behind his glass. "Have you tried it?"

She once again looked surprised by what she was holding in her hand. "Oh! No, I haven't."

"Yeah, well, you should."

She had to admit that she agreed. She'd worked so hard making it; it only made sense for her to taste it. She took a small sip and smiled. She was obviously pleased with the results of all her effort, but too humble to really show it.

"Good huh?" He said. Tifa couldn't get over the suspicion that he was just being nice, but she concurred.

"Ya gonna serve it in the bar?"

"No… No, I don't think so. No one asks for wine there, not even the cheap stuff," she told him.

"I would," Reno said, despite the fact that they were both in agreement that he just wasn't a wine person.

"You'd be a fool then," she said, chuckling faintly.

"Eh?" he raised an eyebrow.

"Well you just got some for free without even asking," she clarified.

His laugh was similar in timbre to hers. "Right… I guess I'd be pretty stupid to pay for it, huh?"

He watched her pour herself another glass. He hadn't even noticed her finish the first one.

Reno made Tifa nervous. She was aware of it, but didn't think he needed to be. Drinking her wine, however, made her less nervous. A part of it probably had to do with the comfort that came in knowing that she made it herself, but it was primarily because of the alcohol. Alcohol was notorious for clearing people of their inhibitions.

So they talk and they drank and they drank and they talked. By the time Tifa checked the clock—she'd actually thought to purchase a clock— it was already closing in on two in the morning, and the bottle of wine was nearly empty. It seemed like a lot to drink, but considering how long they'd been sitting there, the effects of the alcohol weren't as severe.

They were severe enough though.

Tifa had had most of the wine, of that much Reno was certain, but he'd had enough to get a slight buzz too. There was the drinking he'd done at the bar too, but he couldn't recall how much he'd consumed. He hadn't been paying attention to what he was doing. If he were to be perfectly honest, at the time, he'd been paying more attention to her.

Now he was leaning against the wall of her stark apartment. She'd somehow ended up settled in his lap, resting on his chest with contentment and fatigue. She made note of how the clock read. "Oh… it's late…" she commented, still making no effort to move. "We should go to bed," she suggested.

Reno raised an eyebrow. "…What?"

"I mean," she said, abruptly rising to her feet, grabbing his hand to pull him up as well, but inevitably using his weight as a counterbalance when she nearly fell over. "That I need to go to bed," she said, swaying forward and leaning on him for stability.

"Why?" he asked, gripping her shoulders so she wouldn't fall backwards. He knew she wasn't all that drunk; it was just the combination of the alcohol and lethargy that was affecting her grace. "It's not that late."

"Well I," she jabbed a finger in his chest, "have to work in the morning!" She suddenly burst into a fit of giggles. Reno was about to point out to her that she didn't have to work in the morning because the bar didn't open until late in the day, but then he realized that was why she was laughing. Duh.

He didn't budge or let go of her and she frowned at him.

"I gotta go to beeeed!" She pouted. "You need to go hoooome!" Reno tried to think of a good counter but lost his opportunity. "Oh, but you've been drinking!" Realization dawned on her face. "I can't send you out now…"

"Hey, I don't work in the morning, so I guess I don't need to go anywhere," he proclaimed, sauntering off towards the back of the apartment.

"What? Where are you going? You can't stay here! I don't have any furniture except for my bed!" With that, he stopped for a moment to turn around and give her a mischievous smirk, then disappeared around the corner.

Her eyes went wide and she promptly followed in the direction he went. "Reno! What are you thinking! Just because I invite you to my house and give you highly-alcoholic wine doesn't mean that—" She walked into her bedroom and found him no where in sight.

"…Reno?" She checked the bathroom behind her, and found him attempting to make a bed out of her bathtub. "What are you—?"

"Shh," he said with a finger to his lips. "It's bedtime," He didn't even open his eyes when he spoke to her.

"But—!" He held up a finger to silence her, eyes still closed. "Fine!" she exclaimed. "Sleep in the bathtub! I'm going to sleep in my bed like a normal person!" She turned on her heel towards the hallway. It was hard to tell, but Reno was pretty sure that her anger and frustration weren't real, or in the very least, they were embellished.

Stopping at the door, she glared at him. "And I'm locking my door! You've been looking at me funny all night!" She walked off with a 'hmph!'

He was a bit disconcerted that she'd noticed how he was looking at her. Damn, and he'd been trying so hard too. That just proved that no matter how hard he tried, his mind refused to move from its residence in the gutter.

However, his reclined position in the bath and the soporific effects of the wine kept him from dwelling on it for too long.

When he awoke, he was alone. In the back of his mind, he knew he was a little disappointed to have woken up by himself. He had a slight headache, but it was more due to where he'd spent the night than from the wine. His vision was blurred too, but blurred a pale yellow. The hell—?" He lifted a hand to his forehead and found a piece of paper taped to it. It was much easier to see without it obstructing his eyes.

"Reno,"

Tifa's handwriting was neat and feminine. He liked it.

"I can't believe you actually slept in the bathtub. Doesn't your back hurt?"

It did hurt. It hurt like fucking hell.

"I may not have had to work this morning, but I did have to run out to do some errands. I think maybe I'll look for a couch or something…"

He chuckled at this.

"Anyway, I'm sorry it's so cold. Apparently the heat in the building needs fixing. Whenever you decide to regain consciousness, feel free to let yourself out. You know where the door is.

"Oh, and you left a whole bunch of muddy footprints on my nice clean rug. You're paying to have it cleaned.

—Tifa."

He could practically hear the jest in her last statement, but still winced. He'd been so concerned about spilling the wine, he hadn't even thought about all the mud he'd tracked in with the melting snow.

When he climbed out of the tub he winced again. Fuckin' hell! That would have to be the last time he willingly slept in a bathtub.

The apartment was cold, like she said it would be, but that wasn't the only thing that he noticed when he returned to the living room. There was a fireplace near the corner.

Surely a fire would heat the place up. He made a perfunctory grab for his lighter in the pocket of his jacket. When he didn't find it, he remembered he was trying to quit smoking. He also remembered why he was trying to quit smoking in the first place. Tifa and her weird opinions of smokers… Fortunately, he spotted a lighter on the mantle.

Lighting a quick fire, he slumped down on the floor, spread eagle and waiting for the house and for himself to warm up before he headed out.

But after he thought about it, he realized one couldn't leave a fire unattended. Lucky him—another perfectly legitimate excuse to stay in her house. He sighed with a faint smile, still sprawled out on her now muddy carpet.

Reno briefly wondered if she really would buy a couch, or at least SOME furniture.

Of course, he'd have to stay and test that out too, just like the wine.

Isn't it good?

Pssh, so the ending line's a little weird. I wanted it in there anyway—if you knew the song you'd know why! XP

I'll thank you all to ignore the fact that it's a bit hard to make one's own wine XD