FF VII, Reno x Tifa
Fandom: Final Fantasy VII
Pairing: Reno x Tifa
Theme set: Beta
Rating: Eh, to be safe, let's call it NC-17.
Notes: This is my first attempt, and I'm not entirely happy with it. I think this is as good as this one is going to get, though. It builds off of a story I wrote a while back, called Sympathy for the Devil.
#1 - Walking
One quick step followed another, the quiet, desperate walk taking him naturally to Midgar, where he knew Tifa would never follow - even if he secretly hoped that she would.
#2 - Waltz
Sex was no gentle waltz for them, and she wouldn't want it any other way, the cuts from his fingernails still stinging and fresh on her shoulders.
#3 - Wishes
The candle was tall and white, the graceful leftover meant for a silly dinner that had never happened, and she whispered, "I wish you'd come back to me," before snuffing it out.
#4 - Wonder
As Reno dreamed, laying on his stained, narrow mattress on the floor of a cold, bare apartment, he relived the first, desperate kiss, and thought, 'This is what wonder tastes like.'
#5 - Worry
Whenever Reno was gone, whether dancing on the roof or wandering the nearby mountain trails, she would water her love with worry and tears, until her dreams stung with salt.
#6 - Whimsy
"If you were here," Reno said to the blurred tree, the whimsy of exhaustion and vodka making its fraceful limbs into Tifa's arms, "you'd slap the shit out of me, wouldn't you."
#7 - Waste/Wasteland
After only a few nights alone, the city that was Reno's refuge feels barren and dead, an industrial wasteland with dirty shreds of newspaper rolling through the streets.
#8 - Whiskey and rum
The next morning, Reno woke, sticky with sex and her scent, cigarettes and rum and sweet perfume; he basked in it.
#9 - War
It was just war, he told her, not personal, but the look in her eyes called him a murderer - and he couldn't disagree.
#10 - Weddings
Tifa smiled at the customer, knowing that Reno was listening in, and said, "I call it an electric Turk - a perfect marriage of sweet and bitter."
#11 - Birthday
Along with the terrible things that Vincent told her was the date of Reno's birthday; feeling a sad fool, she marked it on the calendar.
#12 - Blessing
Reno couldn't be certain if remembering his one night with Tifa was a blessing or torture; it felt like both, ecstasy beckoning him to go back and the agony of it goading him from behind.
#13 - Bias
"Look, I'm just biased against assholes, okay?" Reno snapped, trying to get her to just shut up; he tried not to hear her murmured, 'No wonder you don't like yourself.'
#14 - Burning
Reno radiated heat like a small, flaring sun; when he took her against the wall, she thought she'd burn from the inside out, though her screams were nothing to do with pain.
#15 - Breathing
Not even breathing was a simple as it used to be; the air everywhere he went tasted different, and he was certain that he could blame the problem on Tifa.
#16 - Breaking
Tifa carefully put the shattered remains of the liquor bottles in a bucket; when she'd regained consciousness and found Reno gone, leaving nothing behind but a splitting headache, breaking glass seemed better than allowing herself to fall to pieces instead.
#17 - Belief
"I believe that you're the most beautiful woman I've ever touched," Reno said, "now enough with the questions - seeing a beautiful woman makes me want sex."
#18 - Balloon
Tifa decorated the bar with balloons, just needing the cheerful colors; Reno took them down, one by one, inhaled the helium, and then warbled love songs at her in a high-pitched, reedy squirrel voice.
#19 - Balcony
The balcony of his new, empty apartment had a great view of the city, showcasing the dead, accusing darkness that had once been Sector Seven; Reno noted it with a certain grim satisfaction the first night he moved in.
#20 - Bane
It was strange to remember that the Turks, and Reno in particular, had once been the bane of her existence; the memory of old fear became resentment at the oddest moments, like when she grudgingly thanked Reno for fixing the roof, or as she clawed at his back as he ground his hips against hers.
#21 - Quiet
Tifa had only gotten Reno to shut up once, and she regretted it for the rest of the day; without words to cover it up, Reno carried the uncomfortable quiet before the storm everywhere he went, leaving the air stinging with ozone and the hint of static.
#22 - Quirks
"It's not a quirk," Tifa said, staring at silverware drawer that Reno had organized, neatly sorting everything by type and then ordering it by size, "I think it's a pathological obsession."
#23 - Question
"Tell me how you like it," Reno murmured against her neck, his fingers slowly inching under the waistband of her pants; Tifa could only gasp and squirm in answer to the question.
#24 - Quarrel
"I wouldn't be drinking if we'd had 'a quarrel,' you limp-wristed fuck," Reno growled at the bartender; it wasn't that he actually cared what the man said - he just wanted an excuse to pick a fight with the bouncer.
#25 - Quitting
"You're right, I am quitting," Tifa said, unable to make herself look the other woman in the eye, "but in case you forgot, he's the bastard that left me, not the other way around."
#26 - Jump
She should have known there was something wrong with Reno, from the moment she watched him jump from the ground to the roof of the bar without apparent effort; at the time, she was too busy being distracted by his simple proximity.
#27 - Jester
"What wrong, Jester lost his smile?" the other merc asked mockingly, right before Reno knocked six of his teeth out; but Reno knew exactly where his laughter was - he'd left it with Tifa.
#28 - Jousting
Reno made sex into a fight - a joust even - and it was one where only he got a lance, not that Tifa was about to complain as she begged to be speared again.
#29 - Jewel
"Yeah, she's okay, I guess," Reno told Rude, taking another sip of his whiskey as he fought the urge to get lame and compare her eyes to jewels or something.
#30 - Just
"It's just not fair, damnit!" Tifa shouted, slamming her fist down on the bar; Reno's only answer was a shrug - he'd figured out that there was no justice in the world, even before he'd started working for Shinra.
#31 - Smirk
"Darlin', I was born smirking," Reno said, every motion of his fingers making her shiver, "but if that's a complaint, I can stop."
#32 - Sorrow
Tifa ate nothing but sorrow for three days until she shook herself out of depression; then she spent her time slamming doors, whishing that Reno would come back just so she could yell at him.
#33 - Stupidity
"There's a thing about stupidity," Reno said, waving for another whiskey and hoping that his metabolism would give up on the alcohol soon so that he could think of something other than Tifa, "you normally don't realize it's stupid until it's too late."
#34 - Serenade
Reno wasn't traditional in a romantic sense, but neither was Tifa; she preferred tools to flowers and serenades of hard sex that left her with bite marks on her shoulders.
#35 - Sarcasm
"Do you ever do anything that's not sarcastic?" Tifa demanded in exasperation; the next thing she knew, the edge of the bar was digging into her back and her skirt was up around her waist as Reno murmured, "Yeah, this."
#36 - Sordid
Tifa slapped him so hard that her hand ached, and she continued angrily, "Fuck your sordid past, Reno - I want to be part of your sordid present!"
#37 - Soliloquy
"I'd give you a drunken soliloquy about being a monster," Reno said, his smile humorless, "But I haven't been able to get drunk in years and I'd much rather bend you over this bar than listen to myself whine."
#38 - Sojourn
Reno only made little forays outside his apartment, quick sojourns to the library and grocery store and liquor store, his gut full of heavy sickness at the thought that he'd turn another corner and not find Tifa there, as always.
#39 - Share
Tifa pushed him away, panting for breath, her skin aching with sudden need, but said, "No - I'm not sharing you with your demons any more."
#40 - Solitary
Reno made his way toward the solitary hooker working that street; her hair was the right color, though her breasts ended up feeling wrong - probably artificially enhanced - to his hands as he fucked her against the brick alley wall.
#41 - Nowhere
Reno never came up with a good answer for why he'd gotten stabbed in a bar in the middle of nowhere; he handed Tifa an outrageous lie every time she asked, not wanting her to know that he'd been there just to check on her.
#42 - Neutral
"Do you want to tell me about it?" Tifa asked, fighting to keep her expression and tone neutral in the face of Reno's wide, frightened eyes.
#43 - Nuance
Tifa spoke two languages fluently, that of nuance and that of fists; looking at the tilt of her eyebrow, coupled with her rather dry tone as she spoke to the drunk miner, Reno suspected they were about to move from the first to the second.
#44 - Near
"It's a near thing," Tifa said, hesitantly brushing back a lock of his hair, "but I think I'd rather kiss you than strangle you... for now."
#45 - Natural
Reno gave her a crooked smile and stood, ignoring her outstretched hand, then said, "I'm the only unnatural thing on this mountain."
#46 - Horizon
The horizon glowed warm and red with the approaching dawn, like waves of fire lapping at the world's feet; Tifa, listening to Reno's slow breathing, felt almost like she could dive in.
#47 - Valiant
"If you were any more valiant, I'd have to call you 'Sir Tifa'," Reno said dryly, his voice soft so as not to echo down the roof tiles, "now get off of it - a little sneaky bastardness is good for the soul."
#48 - Virtuous
Reno grinned at Tifa as she poked her head in, setting down his book, and said, "Sleep's for the virtuous - guess were both screwed."
#49 - Victory
"I win," Tifa murmured into his hair, even though he was asleep and couldn't hear her; her victory had occurred the moment he knocked on her door, returning with a suitcase full of lame excuses and three extra suits.
#50 - Defeat
"I know," Reno answered, his eyes still closed, unbothered by his admitted defeat, "I'm home now, woman, let me sleep."
Pairing: Reno x Tifa
Theme set: Beta
Rating: Eh, to be safe, let's call it NC-17.
Notes: This is my first attempt, and I'm not entirely happy with it. I think this is as good as this one is going to get, though. It builds off of a story I wrote a while back, called Sympathy for the Devil.
#1 - Walking
One quick step followed another, the quiet, desperate walk taking him naturally to Midgar, where he knew Tifa would never follow - even if he secretly hoped that she would.
#2 - Waltz
Sex was no gentle waltz for them, and she wouldn't want it any other way, the cuts from his fingernails still stinging and fresh on her shoulders.
#3 - Wishes
The candle was tall and white, the graceful leftover meant for a silly dinner that had never happened, and she whispered, "I wish you'd come back to me," before snuffing it out.
#4 - Wonder
As Reno dreamed, laying on his stained, narrow mattress on the floor of a cold, bare apartment, he relived the first, desperate kiss, and thought, 'This is what wonder tastes like.'
#5 - Worry
Whenever Reno was gone, whether dancing on the roof or wandering the nearby mountain trails, she would water her love with worry and tears, until her dreams stung with salt.
#6 - Whimsy
"If you were here," Reno said to the blurred tree, the whimsy of exhaustion and vodka making its fraceful limbs into Tifa's arms, "you'd slap the shit out of me, wouldn't you."
#7 - Waste/Wasteland
After only a few nights alone, the city that was Reno's refuge feels barren and dead, an industrial wasteland with dirty shreds of newspaper rolling through the streets.
#8 - Whiskey and rum
The next morning, Reno woke, sticky with sex and her scent, cigarettes and rum and sweet perfume; he basked in it.
#9 - War
It was just war, he told her, not personal, but the look in her eyes called him a murderer - and he couldn't disagree.
#10 - Weddings
Tifa smiled at the customer, knowing that Reno was listening in, and said, "I call it an electric Turk - a perfect marriage of sweet and bitter."
#11 - Birthday
Along with the terrible things that Vincent told her was the date of Reno's birthday; feeling a sad fool, she marked it on the calendar.
#12 - Blessing
Reno couldn't be certain if remembering his one night with Tifa was a blessing or torture; it felt like both, ecstasy beckoning him to go back and the agony of it goading him from behind.
#13 - Bias
"Look, I'm just biased against assholes, okay?" Reno snapped, trying to get her to just shut up; he tried not to hear her murmured, 'No wonder you don't like yourself.'
#14 - Burning
Reno radiated heat like a small, flaring sun; when he took her against the wall, she thought she'd burn from the inside out, though her screams were nothing to do with pain.
#15 - Breathing
Not even breathing was a simple as it used to be; the air everywhere he went tasted different, and he was certain that he could blame the problem on Tifa.
#16 - Breaking
Tifa carefully put the shattered remains of the liquor bottles in a bucket; when she'd regained consciousness and found Reno gone, leaving nothing behind but a splitting headache, breaking glass seemed better than allowing herself to fall to pieces instead.
#17 - Belief
"I believe that you're the most beautiful woman I've ever touched," Reno said, "now enough with the questions - seeing a beautiful woman makes me want sex."
#18 - Balloon
Tifa decorated the bar with balloons, just needing the cheerful colors; Reno took them down, one by one, inhaled the helium, and then warbled love songs at her in a high-pitched, reedy squirrel voice.
#19 - Balcony
The balcony of his new, empty apartment had a great view of the city, showcasing the dead, accusing darkness that had once been Sector Seven; Reno noted it with a certain grim satisfaction the first night he moved in.
#20 - Bane
It was strange to remember that the Turks, and Reno in particular, had once been the bane of her existence; the memory of old fear became resentment at the oddest moments, like when she grudgingly thanked Reno for fixing the roof, or as she clawed at his back as he ground his hips against hers.
#21 - Quiet
Tifa had only gotten Reno to shut up once, and she regretted it for the rest of the day; without words to cover it up, Reno carried the uncomfortable quiet before the storm everywhere he went, leaving the air stinging with ozone and the hint of static.
#22 - Quirks
"It's not a quirk," Tifa said, staring at silverware drawer that Reno had organized, neatly sorting everything by type and then ordering it by size, "I think it's a pathological obsession."
#23 - Question
"Tell me how you like it," Reno murmured against her neck, his fingers slowly inching under the waistband of her pants; Tifa could only gasp and squirm in answer to the question.
#24 - Quarrel
"I wouldn't be drinking if we'd had 'a quarrel,' you limp-wristed fuck," Reno growled at the bartender; it wasn't that he actually cared what the man said - he just wanted an excuse to pick a fight with the bouncer.
#25 - Quitting
"You're right, I am quitting," Tifa said, unable to make herself look the other woman in the eye, "but in case you forgot, he's the bastard that left me, not the other way around."
#26 - Jump
She should have known there was something wrong with Reno, from the moment she watched him jump from the ground to the roof of the bar without apparent effort; at the time, she was too busy being distracted by his simple proximity.
#27 - Jester
"What wrong, Jester lost his smile?" the other merc asked mockingly, right before Reno knocked six of his teeth out; but Reno knew exactly where his laughter was - he'd left it with Tifa.
#28 - Jousting
Reno made sex into a fight - a joust even - and it was one where only he got a lance, not that Tifa was about to complain as she begged to be speared again.
#29 - Jewel
"Yeah, she's okay, I guess," Reno told Rude, taking another sip of his whiskey as he fought the urge to get lame and compare her eyes to jewels or something.
#30 - Just
"It's just not fair, damnit!" Tifa shouted, slamming her fist down on the bar; Reno's only answer was a shrug - he'd figured out that there was no justice in the world, even before he'd started working for Shinra.
#31 - Smirk
"Darlin', I was born smirking," Reno said, every motion of his fingers making her shiver, "but if that's a complaint, I can stop."
#32 - Sorrow
Tifa ate nothing but sorrow for three days until she shook herself out of depression; then she spent her time slamming doors, whishing that Reno would come back just so she could yell at him.
#33 - Stupidity
"There's a thing about stupidity," Reno said, waving for another whiskey and hoping that his metabolism would give up on the alcohol soon so that he could think of something other than Tifa, "you normally don't realize it's stupid until it's too late."
#34 - Serenade
Reno wasn't traditional in a romantic sense, but neither was Tifa; she preferred tools to flowers and serenades of hard sex that left her with bite marks on her shoulders.
#35 - Sarcasm
"Do you ever do anything that's not sarcastic?" Tifa demanded in exasperation; the next thing she knew, the edge of the bar was digging into her back and her skirt was up around her waist as Reno murmured, "Yeah, this."
#36 - Sordid
Tifa slapped him so hard that her hand ached, and she continued angrily, "Fuck your sordid past, Reno - I want to be part of your sordid present!"
#37 - Soliloquy
"I'd give you a drunken soliloquy about being a monster," Reno said, his smile humorless, "But I haven't been able to get drunk in years and I'd much rather bend you over this bar than listen to myself whine."
#38 - Sojourn
Reno only made little forays outside his apartment, quick sojourns to the library and grocery store and liquor store, his gut full of heavy sickness at the thought that he'd turn another corner and not find Tifa there, as always.
#39 - Share
Tifa pushed him away, panting for breath, her skin aching with sudden need, but said, "No - I'm not sharing you with your demons any more."
#40 - Solitary
Reno made his way toward the solitary hooker working that street; her hair was the right color, though her breasts ended up feeling wrong - probably artificially enhanced - to his hands as he fucked her against the brick alley wall.
#41 - Nowhere
Reno never came up with a good answer for why he'd gotten stabbed in a bar in the middle of nowhere; he handed Tifa an outrageous lie every time she asked, not wanting her to know that he'd been there just to check on her.
#42 - Neutral
"Do you want to tell me about it?" Tifa asked, fighting to keep her expression and tone neutral in the face of Reno's wide, frightened eyes.
#43 - Nuance
Tifa spoke two languages fluently, that of nuance and that of fists; looking at the tilt of her eyebrow, coupled with her rather dry tone as she spoke to the drunk miner, Reno suspected they were about to move from the first to the second.
#44 - Near
"It's a near thing," Tifa said, hesitantly brushing back a lock of his hair, "but I think I'd rather kiss you than strangle you... for now."
#45 - Natural
Reno gave her a crooked smile and stood, ignoring her outstretched hand, then said, "I'm the only unnatural thing on this mountain."
#46 - Horizon
The horizon glowed warm and red with the approaching dawn, like waves of fire lapping at the world's feet; Tifa, listening to Reno's slow breathing, felt almost like she could dive in.
#47 - Valiant
"If you were any more valiant, I'd have to call you 'Sir Tifa'," Reno said dryly, his voice soft so as not to echo down the roof tiles, "now get off of it - a little sneaky bastardness is good for the soul."
#48 - Virtuous
Reno grinned at Tifa as she poked her head in, setting down his book, and said, "Sleep's for the virtuous - guess were both screwed."
#49 - Victory
"I win," Tifa murmured into his hair, even though he was asleep and couldn't hear her; her victory had occurred the moment he knocked on her door, returning with a suitcase full of lame excuses and three extra suits.
#50 - Defeat
"I know," Reno answered, his eyes still closed, unbothered by his admitted defeat, "I'm home now, woman, let me sleep."