Disclaimer: Does 'Sakura-Angel' really sound like 'Square Enix'? No? Didn't think so.
Sakura-Angel: Ahhhh pointless little drabble. It was one of those things that hits you when you're lying in bed at like, twelve thirty. It started out as just a scene and elaborated a little. I don't even know why Marlene sounds so little kiddish. I don't even know when this takes place. Siiiiigh.
Reno sat at the freshly wiped counter with his preffered poison - vodka.
He's started to come by more often now that he knew a certain brunette worked there, and sometimes, on the street around the place, he'd catch himself looking for her. Not on the lookout, just looking.
She was someone to talk to at least. He'd lost that since Shinra fell and the Turks disbanded. He hated to admit it, but he missed them sometimes. Maybe, one day, he'd hop on a boat and head on over to Costa and find Rude, still in his suit, just like they'd never stopped working. He could 'Lena lounging somewhere with her family, even. Yeah. maybe he'd do th--
"Aren't you that bad man?" a pair of dark eyes peeked over the counter, along with little fingers.
He grinned. Kids... "Yeah," he leaned forward to look at the little girl - Marlene, was it? - "I am."
"Now, you know better than to listen to what he says, right Marlene?" a figure suddenly came out from the back, clutching a hairtie and long, brown tresses.
"Ah," he grinned at the new arrival. "So you don't think I'm a bad man?"
Tifa pulled her hair into a ponytail and replied easily, "You are."
Tired of being ignored, Marlene spoke up, "I don't think bad men should be in here," she paused curiously and decided to use an expression she'd heard in school. "You better teach him a lesson!"
Both adults' eyebrows went up and Tifa opened her mouth to speak, but Reno beat her to it.
"Yeah," he looked at Tifa dubiously. "You gonna teach me a lesson?" The suggestive lift of his eyebrows and seemingly ever-present smirk were enough to make the normally composed young woman blank out and blush.
Reno snickered at her embarassment and at the confusion of her young charge. He stood up, stretched, and tossed a lazy wink Tifa's way, which earned him a giggle from Marlene and more scratching at some imaginary mark on the counter from Tifa.
"Well... see you sometime," he saluted cheesily and pulled open the door. Once it shut, Marlene turned to the bartender energetically. "You like him, don't you!"
Tifa, despite still being a little pink, denied it with a half-serious, half-flustered 'I do not!'
Marlene giggled a little more and looked at the door where the flirtatious redhead once stood, and glanced over at Tifa again.
She could deny it, but they all knew.
She did.