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Restful sleep…He thought to himself as he shifted, not yet letting his eyes open.
…Is the best kind of sleep. Nice sheets and a mattress sure beat the hell out of anything he'd slept on in the past twenty-four hours. He cracked an eyelid and looked down at Tifa.
Waking up with her on top of him wasn't too shabby either. That made him smirk, before he realized…
Oh right. Clothes. That was awfully disappointing.
It sort of amused him that she woke up only moments after he did. She looked startled when she caught sight of him, despite that fact that she'd seemed perfectly content using him for a pillow. He grinned. "Something wrong?"
"Oh…" she looked around slowly, blinking. "No. It's just for a second I thought…"
"You thought…?"
"I thought we…" she trailed off, blushing.
He grinned wider. "No worries babe. If we did anything kinky, you'd remember. I can guarantee you of that," His arm was still around her, but if she hadn't said anything, he certainly wasn't going to.
She scoffed. "Bold statement," she said, resting her head on him, where it had been on his chest when she slept, and closing her eyes again.
"Are you looking for me to prove it?"
Her eyes opened again and narrowed into a glare. "No."
"Yeah, well, the fact that you're trying to undress me proves otherwise."
She looked terribly confused for a moment. "…Huh?"
He gestured to his chest, where two of his buttons had been undone from her clutching at his shirt as she slept. Further inspection revealed her hand wrapped around his belt. He thought he'd something felt something slightly askew…
Her eyes widened. "Oh!" she abruptly pulled her hand away. "Sorry…" he wondered if she knew how attractive it was when she turned red like that. Not that she'd ever believe him had he told her.
"Hey," he shrugged. "Apologize when you've got something to apologize for," He allowed a smirk near the end of his sentence. Personally, he didn't really mind the fact that she was trying to take his clothes off in her sleep… She didn't shift from where she was or make any effort to remove herself from his grip. He figured she was too embarrassed to attempt to do anything at the moment.
"What time is it?" she asked after a while.
The clock was on his side. "'Bout seven… Hey, don't you have to go to work?"
"Umm, what day is it?" she asked quietly, tensing a little. It sounded to him like something he'd ask.
He had to think for a minute. "Uhh… Sunday?"
"Oh, okay," She relaxed again. "Then no, I don't."
"Hmm," He didn't feel like giving a verbal response, and he still wasn't much up to moving. Though it was usually difficult for him to keep his mouth shut. "Hey, can I tell people we slept together now?"
She answered him behind the curtain of hair that fell over her face. "I'd prefer you didn't."
"Fine. I'll just have to say we had sex."
"Well saying we slept together would have been true, even if you didn't mean sleeping. But saying THAT would be lying."
"Okay… we'll just have to make it true then," he let his eyes travel from the ceiling to her as he smirked.
"Fat chance."
"You'll be eating your words someday."
"Yeah, yeah…" she mumbled, snuggling a little closer. Suddenly, she sat up. "Ahhh, no, I can't go back to sleep now, my whole schedule's gonna be messed up."
"…What should we do then?"
She bit her lip in hesitation. He'd already told her a man could get ideas… he was starting to get some of those ideas right now…
"Well, uhh…" He saw the blush creep onto her face and he couldn't figure out if she was really going where he prayed she was going, or she honestly just had no idea how to answer his question. "We could…" He wanted to laugh at the way she was avoiding his eyes. "Go outside in the snow."
He then realized she'd been looking past him out the window—they'd slept through half a blizzard. "Err, yeah, we could do that…"
"Did you have something else in mind?" she asked over her shoulder from the edge of the bed.
Well, YEAH… He stared at her."Let's go then," she said cheerfully, grabbing his hand and pulling him out the door. God, he was never so chipper after just waking up…
Once they were outside—and realizing how cold it was—he had to ask…
"You're going out in weather like this…" he looked her up and down, "Dressed like that?" He gestured to what she was wearing.
"Umm…" She shuffled her feet and kicked at a snowdrift. "Yeah… so?"
He shrugged. "Hey, I'm not complaining," The fact that she frequently wore short skirts was, in his opinion, never anything to complain about. "But you're gonna be cold ya know," He wasn't sure why he cared, but…
"I'll be fine," she insisted. "I'm used to this kind of thing," She sauntered off, staring up at the snowflakes that fell on her face.
He supposed growing up in a pissant mountain town did prepare a person for the cold. Then again, it was an awfully small outfit…
Reno just stood there stupidly as his mind wandered. He hadn't seen where Tifa had gone and didn't feel immediately inclined to follow her. He wasn't exactly much one for frolicking…
"Fuck!" His voice echoed in the still air. When he wiped the snow from his face, he could see her giggling a few yards away. He was lucky the snow wasn't too heavy or icy—that could have hurt like a bitch. She her laughter ceased suddenly when a snowball exploded at her feet. Reno swore again. He'd never been known for his deadly accuracy…
And so the snowball fight ensued. She was winning by a long shot—maybe he was even letting her win. After a while his hands were red and numb, and he found it hard to believe it wasn't the same for her.
"All right, all right," Tifa said, holding up her hands as he aimed a snowball at her. "You were right—I'm cold. Let's go inside," The snow was picking up anyway.
"You don't want me to leave?" He wasn't really sure why he was asking, but it was the first thing he could think of to say. He watched her light a fire—he heard her curse the fact that the heat was out.
She idly looked through the window at the snow. It fell fast and thick enough to be seen even in the dark. "Are you crazy? I can't let you walk home in this weather."
"But you just—"
"I know. Dragged you outside in it," She kept a straight face. "But this is different."
He didn't really see how it could possibly be different. Unless…
"Don't look at me like that."
God, he was getting easy to read.
"Go sit down," She rolled her eyes when he opened his mouth to say something. "Yes, on the floor."
He obediently complied after she disappeared into the kitchen. "So where's this… liquor cabinet of which you spoke?"
"Nuh-uh," Her voice carried into the living room. "You get enough free alcohol from me as it is. You'll take hot chocolate."
"…I'll take hot chocolate," he repeated, smirking and leaning back against the wall. Don't fall asleep again…
His eyes snapped open when she returned with a dark green flannel blanket and two mugs. He eyed the cocoa she gave him. It wouldn't give him a buzz, but it smelled really good.
It tasted really good too.
"Sorry it's so cold," she said sitting down beside him and tossing the blanket over the both of them. "This is the best I can do."
Once again, he didn't really have it in mind to protest. He shrugged. "It's fine," he turned to her, eyes gleaming. "Bet you wouldn't mind getting out of those wet clothes though."
She grinned back at him. "Oh you couldn't be more right…"
"…Yeah?"
"Definitely," He liked where this was going. "Which is why I changed before when you were falling asleep."
This was just getting frustrating. He narrowed his eyes. "You're a damn evil tease."
"Oops," she said sarcastically with a short laugh, leaning her head back.
"What about me then?" he asked after a while.
She casually observed the ceiling. "What about you?"
"Can't I at least change out of these pants?"
"I'm not letting you walk around without any pants on."
"You know, I'm starting to think you don't want to jump my bones."
She smirked at him and leaned in close. "If I did, I'd be trying to pounce on you right now."
"…Seriously?"
Tifa pulled back and her smile widened. "Maybe," she replied innocently.
He pretended to be angry but smiled good-naturedly. "A damn fuckin' tease!"
They talked about nothing in particular. Reno managed to slip in a few more suggestive comments as the hours passed. Tifa finished her hot chocolate and stopped caring what he said. Reno nearly spilled his on the carpet—after that, he decided to leave his mug alone. He already had muddy footprints to remove.
A silence ensued. He didn't surprise either of them by breaking it. "So… can I take my pants off now?"
"Sure, let's strip."
"…Really?"
"You know, you're either really gullible or you actually think you can get casual sex that easily," He wasn't gullible… what if she finally changed her mind and he missed it? She snorted. "No, not really. Besides, I'm sure your pants are dry by now."
"Yeah, well, they're not. C'mooooon I promise I'll put something on," he knew whining wouldn't make her more inclined, but that didn't stop him.
"Like what? I don't have anything for you to wear, and I'd be horrified to see you try to fit into any of my clothes."
That was true, at least. Her outfits were too skimpy for him to wear—not that he was planning on wearing them. Way too skimpy… "Sure you do… don't you have a pair of what's-his-face's pants lyin' around here somewhere or something?"
"What's-his-face?" She tried to look confused, but he wasn't fooled.
"Y'know uhh…" Sky… sun…? "Cloud," Yeah, that's his name.
"Oh…" She scoffed again. Suddenly her voice sounded bitter. "No, why would I have anything of his around here?"
He'd obviously touched a nerve, but he pressed on anyway. "I dunno. I figured by now you guys would be having all kinds of crazy planet-saving-hero sex."
She slumped lower down the wall, hiding more of herself under the blanket. "No, that didn't happen."
Well even if they were together but not intimate he could be getting himself into a lot of trouble with the attention he gave her. "But then you're still—?"
"No Reno," He heard strain in her voice. "…He left me."
Please tell me she's not crying…An audible sniff. Oh geez…"He left?" What an idiot. "…Where'd he go?" I mean seriously, what a fucking idiot!
"I don't know," she said miserably, dabbing at her eyes with the blanket. "He just told me he couldn't stay with me. I guess I'm not angry but… I hate him for making me regret admitting my feelings for him. A lot of good that did me…"
So she had told Cloud how she felt. His name may have escape Reno, but he didn't forget how obvious it was that Tifa loved that spiky-haired moron. Reno could swear that just about everyone knew it except for the object of affection himself.
"He's not worth it," Not worth YOU… He did happen to be trying to cheer her up but he meant what he said.A tear rolled down her cheek.
And he was holding her again.
She sniffled into his shirt. He was never any good at these situations, but if that was all the comfort she wanted then he could easily handle it. He let her carry on for a few minutes, occasionally pulling her closer and rubbing her back. He waited a few minutes for her to calm down. She rested her head against him and stared absently at his feet stretched out in front of him.
"Your hair's really long," he said after a sustained silence. Some strands had fallen into his lap. He picked them up and examined them with concealed interest.
She looked up at him—he could only make out a faint trace of red in her eyes now. "So's yours," she commented. "…And you're a guy," she added after a while, with a hint of amusement. At least she was cheering up, even if it was at his expense.
"…What's that supposed to mean?"
She laughed a little. "I don't know."
After a while, her breathing became deep and even. He maneuvered them both to a better position on the floor—he wasn't going to wake up with a sore neck again, that was for sure—and he drifted off, following her into peaceful sleep.
He found two more buttons undone when he awoke. He gestured to his chest when she roused. "You know, if you have a subconscious need for sex, you can tell me. I'll be more than happy to help you out," he smirked.
She mirrored his expression. "Maybe I'm just trying to tell you that shirt looks bad on you."
"Yeah right. I look way hot in this shirt."
"Oh yes, so hot I don't think it even matters that the heat is broken."
"Damn straight," He grinned proudly.
She laughed a little and he followed her eyes to the clock. It was ten AM. The sound of melting snow dripping off the roof filled the brief stillness. "Okay… I think I can send you home now."
"You're gonna have to get off of me first," He enjoyed the embarrassment she suffered once he called attention to what she was doing.
He helped her up and she walked with him to the door. "I'm sorry for losing it last night," she told him when he was already standing in the open doorway.
"Nah, that wasn't losing it," He smiled at her. "You should see me when I get goin,'" He was pleased with the giggle he got from her.
"Thank you though," she said suddenly, and just as suddenly she stepped forward and hugged him tightly. She planted a quick kiss on his cheek when she pulled away.
His smile widened. Well, it's better than nothing. "And thank you for releasing me from your captivity. It's good to be a free man," He paused for effect. "However, I am a glutton for punishment and I will be back for more."
"Reno…"
"What?"
"You're starting to overstay your welcome!" she teased, pushing him out the door. "I'm not letting you back until you bring a steam-cleaner for my carpet," She stuck her tongue out at him and shut the door before he could respond.
Overstaying my welcome? He trudged through the heavy wet snow. Well I certainly hope not.
Reno had quite a lot more visiting and freeloading in him. Tifa could just try to get rid of him.
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Review, would ya? Do it for Sir Paul this time, cause he puts on one hell of a concert.