"Well, this is just great," Reno muttered.
Putting his nightstick away he strode purposefully over to the woman. Dr. Singh was proving a difficult nut to crack. Now that his wife was here things might be simpler, but maybe not. He had used the nightstick on the good doctor and the man knew that, though it was quite painful, it didn't really do any lasting damage. They didn't have time. Reno couldn't take the chance that knowing this, the man might still resist even after Reno used the nightstick on his wife. No, with the alarms going off, something more drastic was needed.
He opened his jacket, pulling out a very evil looking knife. It was black, even the blade, which was curved and spined on the back, and half a foot long. The handle was in the shape of a dragon, it's tail curled around it's body. He had had it for years, had gotten it as a youth because it looked cool and intimidating. Time hadn't changed his feeling about it either. Though normally he didn't carry it anymore he did occasionally bring it along with him.
Tifa looked at the knife and the way he was striding toward the woman and felt something tighten in her gut. The woman was obviously Dr. Singh's wife, or significant other. She could see what Reno had meant now about Rude going to get them some insurance. Threatening to hurt a loved one was an obvious ploy to get someone to talk and she should have known the Turks would have a back up plan in case Dr. Singh was uncooperative. Even so, the woman was not involved in this. Tifa had no reason to think she had any idea what was going on. Tifa didn't like the idea of hurting Dr. Singh to get what they needed, but she knew that was probably unavoidable, and the man wasn't exactly a saint. He knew about the cure, yet he kept it a secret, while hundreds of children contracted the disease and died every year, children he could save if he just had the courage to speak out. She didn't like to see the man hurt but she had hurt others when they got in her way, had hurt Shinra guards and employees, yet she had always been defending herself or fighting those she knew were corrupt or evil. This woman was neither of those.
Tifa took a step forward as Reno approached the woman, but made no other move. She wanted to say something, but held back. She knew she shouldn't interfere, that her saying anything, letting Dr. Singh know that there was a rift between her and Reno could potentially jeopardize the mission. Saving Karisa was her fist priority. It had to be. And anyway, he was just going to threaten her, right? He'd hold the knife against her throat, threaten to kill her, and Dr. Singh would spill everything.
Reno, however, had other things in mind. Things were not going well and he was not happy. They didn't have time to mess around anymore. Dr. Singh had to know just how serious this was.
He stepped up beside the woman and reached out, grabbing her hair with his free hand, savagely pulling her head down and forward. Without hesitation he lifted the knife, setting it behind her ear and slashing downwards. The blade was razor sharp, slicing easily through the woman's flesh and suddenly there was blood, blood all over the woman's neck and shoulder.
Debra screamed and would have brought her hand up to her head had not Rude been standing behind her, holding her fast. Dr. Singh cried out in horror, his voice almost drowned out by his wife's sobbing. Tifa stood there with her mouth open, staring at the woman and the blood running down the side of her head, staining her blouse, the floor beside her. She stared at Reno too, as he turned to face Dr. Singh again, the bloodstained knife still in his hand, the woman's hair still held firmly with his other. There was no remorse in his eyes, no regret. His face held a grim look, a cold look. He lowered the knife again, this time to the woman's other ear. Was he going to do that again?
"Reno, no!"
It was her own voice, even though she hadn't intended to say anything. She couldn't help it though. She couldn't just stand there and watch him hurt this woman more. It was just too brutal.
Reno's head turned, coming up, his eyes glaring at her.
"You stay out of this!" he snapped.
She just stood there. She knew full well she shouldn't have spoken, shouldn't have protested what he was doing. She had to think about her daughter. This was Karisa's only chance. They had to get the cure and they had to get it now. There would be no second chances. Reno was doing what he had to do to get what they needed. He was a Turk, he didn't have any qualms about being brutal when it came to getting the job done. She knew that before they came in here, had seen it before, so why was she so upset to see it now? She should have known, she should have known this was exactly what would happen.
Yet she hadn't. She hadn't thought it would come to this. She hadn't seen this side of him in so long, she had almost forgotten it existed. She thought he had changed, thought this kind of behavior was behind him.
And yet he was doing it to save her daughters life. She couldn't forget that. She had said she would do whatever it took to get the cure. Reno had been skeptical, hadn't wanted her to come, in fact. Perhaps he had anticipated just what was happening. She hadn't. She hadn't thought they would have to do this, would have to turn into animals to get what they wanted. Was her daughter's life worth that? Was anything?
All this went though her mind in the time it took Reno to turn back toward Dr. Singh.
"Tell me where the cure is. Now!"
Still Dr. Singh hesitated, but this time only for a moment, the he lowered his head and nodded.
"All right," he said. "Just don't hurt her any more."
It was a sentiment Tifa could wholeheartedly agree with. She thanked the powers that be that Dr. Singh had the good sense to cooperate.
"It's over here," Dr. Singh said. He walked over to a glass cabinet. Taking out a key he unlocked it. There were dozens of bottles and vials inside.
"We don't keep a lot of it on hand," Dr. Singh continued. "It's very hard to produce. You're lucky we have any at all. Usually it's kept in storage, locked away and you need special papers and a dozen approvals to get it."
"Spare me the lecture," Reno snapped. He could tell a delaying tactic when he heard one. "And get a move on. I better have it in my hand in five seconds or your wife starts losing other body parts."
"Yes, yes," the Doctor replied, his voice stiff and forced.
He pulled a small bottle off the shelf.
"Here it is. There's only two cc's in here. That should be enough but be careful with it."
"Is your daughter really dying?"
Tifa turned to see Trevor standing next to her. His face was pale and she noticed he kept his gaze carefully turned away from Dr. Singh's wife, though they could still hear her crying softly. Trevor had spoken in a whisper, so only she could hear.
"Yes," Tifa replied.
"How old is she?"
"She's only three."
Trevor just looked at her for a moment. She wasn't sure why.
"That's not it," he said finally, nodding toward Dr. Singh.
"That's not..." she started, not sure what he was talking about at first but then realizing.
"That's not the cure?" she said, keeping her voice as low as his had been.
Tevor shook his head.
"I thought you said you didn't know they had one," she stated.
"I didn't, but I know that's not it," Trevor replied. "That's the cabinet where we keep all the antibiotics. I don't know where the cure is but its not in there."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
Tifa felt herself chewing on her lower lip. A rouse? It made sense. Neither of them knew what the cure really was, what it would look like. Dr. Singh could give them anything he wanted and tell them it was the cure and they wouldn't know any better. They wouldn't find out until it was too late. Of course, Trevor could be lying too. Why had he told her in the first place? She looked at him a moment but he seemed sincere. She could only assume he felt sorry for her, felt sorry for her daughter.
"He's lying!" she blurted out.
That got everyone's attention. Dr. Singh and Reno both turned to stare at her, but she suspected for very different reasons. To her surprise, Reno didn't question her, didn't ask how she knew. Instead he walked back over to Debra.
Tifa stepped forward, feeling sick to her stomach because she could see Reno's intent and she didn't know what to do. Scared to death that interfering might mean the missions failure and at the same time scared to death of what Reno might do to this woman.
"Reno, no more," she said.
Reno turned toward her again, and gave her a look so black it stopped her in her tracks.
"I told you to stay the hell out of this!" he shouted.
He reached for the woman again. She cringed back, whimpering, or tried to, but Rude's grip hardly let her move at all.
Dr. Singh was saying something, pleading not to hurt his wife, but Reno didn't seem to be listening. He was going to hurt her again, Tifa was sure of that, and if what he had done before was any indication, it was going to be bad.
Mustering her courage, Tifa spoke up again.
"No I won't stay out of it!" she stated in a voice she hoped sounded more determined than she felt. "You've gotten your point across. Dr. Singh, you saw what happened to your wife already. Give us the cure with no more tricks and we'll leave her alone! We don't want to hurt anyone, but we'll do whatever we have to to get the cure."
For a moment she thought Reno was going to totally ignore her. The look on his face was furious. He grabbed hold of the woman's hair yet again, yanking her head so hard she cried out once more, the blood from her still bleeding wound spattering across Reno's shirt with the movement. He lifted the knife and Tifa took another step forward.
She wasn't really thinking. She was working just on instinct at this point. She didn't know if she would actually interfere or not. In any case, Reno stopped before the knife came down again and looked at Dr. Singh.
"You heard her," he spate out. "Tell us where the cure is and no more fucking around or you won't recognize this woman when I'm done with her!"
"All right, all right!" Dr. Singh pleaded. "I'm sorry. Don't hurt her. Please don't hurt her."
"Get me the damn cure!"
Reno had had enough. He was really mad now. At everything, at everyone. No one was cooperating. They were threatening the man's wife and he was still trying to play games, even though he had made it clear that would not be tolerated. And now Tifa was getting in the way, screwing up the pressure he was putting on the man. Reno had no qualms about killing Debra. The thing was though, the doctor had to know that. If the man thought they weren't serious he would be less inclined to cooperate, and Tifa opening her big mouth was doing just that. He felt the inclination to cut this woman again just to spite his companion. What the hell was wrong with her? He'd had a feeling she was going to screw this up. That's why he hadn't wanted her along in the first place.
"Yes, yes," Dr. Singh said, his voice quavering.
He walked over to another cabinet, this one a metal one that stood on the floor. Again he produced a key and, fumbling for a moment, opened it. Reno waited impatiently, the knife gripped tightly in his hand, anger still seething in him. He kept glancing over at the open doorway. Any moment now he expected guards to come running in the room. It had only been a moment ago that the alarms had sounded, yet it felt like ages had passed. Dr. Singh seemed to be moving in slow motion.
Dr. Singh extracted a small bottle from the cabinet and held it up.
"Here it is," he stated.
"How do we know it's the real one this time?" Reno snapped.
"It is, I swear to you," the doctor replied.
Tifa glanced at Trevor, but this time he made no motion. She caught his eye and he gave just the slightest shrug of his shoulders.
Reno looked at Tifa, and motioned for her to take the bottle. She walked over to the doctor and accepted it, lifting it up and looking at the clear liquid inside. Dimodexin, it said on the label. It didn't mean anything to her.
"What's the dosage?" she asked.
"How old is the child?"
"Three."
"How much does she weigh?"
"Thirty two pounds."
"Half a cc administered IM every twelve hours for two days," the doctor stated after a moment.
"Let's go," Reno snapped.
For once, Reno was satisfied to note, Tifa was more than willing to obey. He looked at Rude and the woman as Tifa returned to his side. They still couldn't be sure Dr. Singh was telling the truth. He was tempted to take the woman with them as insurance. They hadn't made plans for anything like that, however. They had no place set up to stash her, and he didn't like to change the plan on the fly unless it was absolutely necessary. He turned to stare at Dr. Singh again. The man was hard to read, but he suspected the doctor was sufficiently cowed to have told the truth. Still, he decided to throw out one last threat.
"If this is a trick, I'll be back. I'll find you, and when I do, you'll wish you had never been born,"
It was a bluff, for the most part, just to gauge the man's reaction. After this Psi Co was sure to make security changes, improvements. They'd probably be watching the doctor like a hawk, that was, if they let him live at all, after giving away the cure.
That wasn't something Reno need concern himself about. If Psi Co wanted to find fault with the doctor that was between him and them. As far as Reno was concerned, if they killed Dr. Sigh, it was only what he deserved for working for such an unscrupulous company.
"It's no trick. I promise you," the doctor said.
The doctor's response didn't exactly reek of sincerity, but it would do. They'd lingered long enough. It was time to get the hell out of there.
The sound of footsteps made all their eyes turn to the doorway. Tifa balled her hands into fists, though she was too far from the door to do much as two security guards came running in. Immediately thereafter the retort from Rude's gun echoed through the room, seeming ridiculously loud, even after the shouting that had gone on and the blare of the alarms. Rat-tat, two shots ringing out, one after the other, and then the men were on the floor.
"Let's go!" Reno shouted.
Rude let go of Debra, who fell to her knees. Tifa stepped past the woman, as she did noticing something on the floor. There, in a small pool of blood, lay the remains of the woman's ear. Tifa averted her eyes, feeling bile welling up in her throat. Reno was already out the door. She followed.
They raced down the corridor, Reno in the lead, Tifa last, clutching the bottle in her hand, just glad that it was all over. Well, it wasn't really over. Not quite yet. They were still in the building, could still run into more guards. That didn't concern Tifa as much. A straight fight was much more to her liking than what they had been doing a few minutes before. The two guards who had run in the room hadn't even had their guns drawn. Even with the alarms, it was as if they had been taken by surprise, as if they hadn't been expecting any trouble. If all of the guards were like that, they'd have no problem getting out of here.
They weren't.
They reached the end of the hall and Reno raced around the corner, then skidded to a halt. There was another guard here, right in front of him. They had almost run into one another and now stood just a foot away from each other, face to face. Or, more accurately, face to waist. It wasn't a man Reno had nearly run into, it was a mountain. The man was huge, larger than anyone Reno had ever seen before in his life. The ex Turk's nightstick came up and light flared in the room, the white hot charge striking the man right in the center of his chest.
He didn't even flinch. His hand shot out, wrapping around Reno's neck. And suddenly the ex Turk was flung backwards, the nightstick clattering away. He slammed into something behind him, and realized it was Rude even as they both fell to the ground.
Reno scrambled to his feet, or tried to. Once again a hand grabbed hold of him, taking him by the shoulder and lifting him up as if he were a rag doll. He kicked the man, full in the stomach and again got no reaction, not even a grunt. A fist slammed into the side of Reno's head. He saw stars. He flew through the air again, slamming hard against the wall. He slumped to the ground, momentarily dazed. This wasn't a man they were fighting, it was some kind of monster. Where the hell had he come from?
Reno shook his head to clear it. He looked up and saw Rude faring no better than he had. The man slapped Rude's weapon away as if it were a toy. Rude was by no means a small man, yet their adversary towered over him. Reno saw his companion get in two good shots with his fists, hits that would have taken down a lesser man but this guy barely flinched. Then Rude was lifted in the air and slammed down to the ground with a force that made Reno shudder.
Reno looked around wildly, searching for his nightstick, seeming to have forgotten what little effect it had had. He saw it, across the corridor. Not nearly close enough. He turned toward the man again and saw Tifa standing in front of him. Rude had looked small compared to the man. Tifa, barely coming up to his belt, seemed like a child in his presense. Reno's nightstick hadn't hurt the man, nor had Rude's blows. Reno's head still spun from the single blow he had received. He shuddered to think what the man could do to her.
"Tifa, look out!" he shouted.
On hands and knees he scrambled across the corridor, over to his nightstick. Fumbling, he picked it up, then, spinning around, still on his knees he lifted the rod up to fire.
And found he had no target. The man was on the ground, on hands and knees just like Reno had been, swaying slightly, a guttural gagging noise issuing from his throat.
Reno pulled himself to his feet and, behind Tifa, saw Rude do the same. Tifa stood in front of their adversary, fists raised in front of her, but their foe no longer seemed interested in battle.
With everyone on their feet again they turned away from the man, running down the hallway once more. Reno, in the lead, slowed down a bit until Tifa was beside him.
"What the hell did you do to that guy?" he questioned. He had never been more surprised than when he had turned and seen her standing there, with the man on the ground. He had thought for sure she was dead.
"Knife hand to the throat," she replied matter of factly. "Hard to concentrate on fighting when you're having trouble just trying to breathe."
Reno brought his hand up to touch his own throat. They'd fought a number of times in the past, but she'd never tried anything like that on him.
"Something new you learned?" he questioned.
"No, I learned it a long time ago. I don't use it very often. It's very easy to crush someone's windpipe and kill them that way. With someone like that though, someone who can take you out with one blow, you don't pussy foot around. Everyone has weak points, no matter how big or strong they are."
Reno fell silent. It was hard to believe some times that the cheerful, mild mannered, feminine girl beside him was perfectly capable of killing someone with her bare hands. She had never tried that on him. Did that mean when they fought she had been 'pussy footing around', that she hadn't taken him seriously?
He shook his head. Stupid thing to think about really. What, was he mad that she hadn't tried a move on him that could easily kill him? Having an ego was one thing, but that seemed to be taking things too far.
At any rate, he didn't have time to ponder that right now. They had more important things to worry about, like getting out of here with their skin intact.
So far they had returned the way they had come and now the elevator stood in front of them. Reno eschewed that, however, running past it and heading for a door at the other end of the corridor that lead into a stairwell. With the alarms going off a lockdown would have begun. The elevators would not work in that situation, or would deliver them right into the arms of their enemy. The service entrance he had used to let Tifa in was obscure and he hoped, still unguarded, or at best, guarded by someone they could easily overpower. So he hoped, anyway. At any rate, the stairs were their best chance.
They pounded down the stairwell to the bottom floor, flinging open the door and running into the hallway without hesitation, hoping to catch anyone there by surprise. No one was in the corridor, however, and they raced down it. Passing an intersection Reno heard a shout, but all that did was make them run faster. They were near the exit now. They didn't have far to go.
Tifa, once more last in line, heard a loud retort, and something hit the wall right beside her head. She glanced behind her to see guards down at the other end of the corridor, but a moment later they turned a corner, obscuring their pursuers from view.
The doors were set to autolock automatically when the alarms were activated. Reno had disabled that feature on their escape door before he had let Tifa in. He just hoped someone hadn't reactivated it.
The door flew open at his push, and then they were outside, running into the night, away from the Psi Co building as fast as they could.
The truckers were gone, Tifa noted fleetingly, the docking bay dark. And then they were past that too, out in the streets, running along the sidewalk, the Psi Co building falling behind them, then disappearing into the night. Somewhere along the line Rude fell back, behind Tifa. When she looked back a few minutes later, he was gone altogether. Eventually, after running for quite some time and making a number of turns, they both stopped.
Tifa bent down, her hands on her knees, panting, trying to catch her breath, a white cloud around her head from her exhaled breath. The street they were on was dark, and empty. Just a narrow side street lost amidst all the other roads in Junon. After a moment she lifted her head, looking back the way they had come, but she saw no sign of pursuit, heard no sound but the barking of a far off dog.
"I think... we've given them... the slip," Reno proclaimed, sucking in air every few words.
Tifa nodded. They were silent for a few minutes more, until their hearts stopped racing and their breathing returned to normal.
"Where did Rude go?" Tifa questioned eventually.
"Back to give them a false trail, in case they're following," Reno replied.
Tifa nodded but did not reply. They had done it! She lifted her hand, opening it up to look at the bottle she had clenched there, the bottle that meant life to her daughter.
"We did it," she said softly.
Reno didn't reply. They had done it, but it hadn't been easy, and he hadn't forgotten that Tifa hadn't made it any easier.
"Just what the hell did you think you were doing back there?"
She looked up at him.
"What do you mean?"
"Why did you have to keep interfering like that? You could have screwed up everything!"
His anger had cooled, somewhat, during their flight from the Psi Co building. The mission had been a success, that was the bottom line, and ordinarily that fact would alleviate any dissatisfaction he might have had with the way things had gone. Reno wasn't ordinarily a stickler for details but in this case he felt the need to take her to task for what she had done. Perhaps there was a bit of ego involved in that too, though he would never admit it. He had been in charge and she hadn't obeyed his orders.
Tifa didn't reply for a moment, fumbling for something to say, caught a bit off guard by this subject.
"Did you really have to do that to that woman?" she eventually said.
"Yes I had to," Reno said. "What did you think, that we were going on a picnic? Did you think they'd give us the cure if we just asked politely?"
"No, of course not," Tifa replied. "But did you have to be so brutal?"
"What did you expect me to do?"
"You could have just threatened to hurt her."
"We didn't have time for that," Reno shot back. "The alarms were going off. Guards were going to come any minute. You know that. I had to show Dr. Singh we meant business."
"Why didn't you just use your nightstick on her?" Tifa questioned. She couldn't get the sight of the woman's ear lying on the ground out of her mind.
"It wouldn't have had the same effect," Reno replied. "Dr. Singh needed to see a little blood."
"It was vicious."
"It was necessary."
"She was an innocent bystander!"
"She was Dr. Singh's wife!"
"So what? She had nothing to do with it!"
"How do you know that? How do you know she didn't know all about what was going on? She was no more innocent than he was!"
"You don't know that! You're just rationalizing like you always do. To you everyone is guilty!"
"Everyone usually is! What difference does it make anyway?" Reno exclaimed. "Who cares if she was innocent or not?"
"It makes a big difference!"
"Why?" Both their voices were rising now, the argument getting more heated. "She was a tool. That's all there was to it. A tool to help us get what we wanted. You wanted your daughter to live, didn't you? If she had to be hurt to obtain that, then wasn't it worth it?"
"She wasn't a tool! She was a human being! I don't know if she knew anything about what was going on but I don't have any reason to believe she did. She was just his wife, she had nothing to do with any of this. She was an innocent bystander and you mutilated her! You maimed her for life! Psi Co has a cure and they're withholding it from people, they're letting people die. Innocent children. If we hurt innocent people too, then how are we any different from them?"
Reno just stared at her for a moment. There she went again. Where had she gotten these morals from? She had grown up in the slums. After Sephiroth had come to Nibelheim her life had gone in the crapper, yet here she was, still harping on doing 'the right thing'. He had had just about enough of it.
"Oh I am so sick of you high and mighty attitude!" he shouted. "You're beyond belief, do you know that? Who gives a shit what we did to that woman! Who cares how we got what we wanted? When the hell are you going to learn? The world isn't measured by whether you do right or wrong, it's measured by whether you win or lose! That's what matters. That's all that matters!"
He stepped forward as he said this, right in front of her now, in her face, as the saying goes.
"And I'm sick of you!" she retorted with equal volume. "I thought you had changed but you're exactly the same. You don't give a shit about anyone or anything but yourself!"
"Why should I?" Reno ranted. "What has anyone ever done for me anyway? If I don't look out for myself no one will!"
"That doesn't mean the rest of the world should go to hell!" Tifa exclaimed.
"Like I care if it does, or what you think!" Reno snapped. "You said you would listen to what I told you. You promised you'd go along with whatever I said!"
"And how many promises have you broken?" Tifa shot back. "You want me to keep my promises, yet you break yours at will. You want me to follow orders, but when did Reno ever do anything anyone told him?"
A window slammed. Not too far away from them, up in one of the buildings off to their left. They were both shouting quite loudly now, and on the quiet street the noise was carrying far down the block. The whole neighborhood must be able to hear them. Probably not a good idea for two people trying to slip away from a break in, but neither one of them were thinking about that now. Reno didn't care who heard them, care how loud they were. If the guy wanted quiet, he shouldn't have had his window open in the first place. It was freezing out, after all.
"Do you want your daughter to live or not?" Reno shouted.
"Of course I want her to live, but it's not as simple as that!"
"Yes it is. It is that simple. Your daughter is going to live. You should be happy. You should be dancing a freaking jig. Instead you're tearing yourself apart over some stupid woman you don't even know. Don't you see what your stupid morals are doing to you?"
"I'd rather have my morals than be a bastard like you!"
He grabbed hold of her, pulling him to her. He did it without thinking. It was just instinctive. To his even greater surprise, she did not try to break his grip.
"If it wasn't for a bastard like me, your daughter would be as good as dead! Do you have any idea how full of shit you are? All this bullshit about not hurting someone who was innocent, about doing the 'right thing'. You and your goddam holier than thou attitude. I cut the woman and I'm glad! And so are you! In spite of your lame protests, you weren't really going to try to stop me were you? You were willing to let me do whatever I had to do to get the cure for your daughter. If you hadn't been with me, and I came back with the cure, would you have asked me how I had gotten it? Would you have been concerned about my methods? You're not pissed about what I did, your pissed because you were involved. You didn't want to see it. You wanted to keep your own hands clean. I warned you. I told you not to come but you insisted, and you just can't stand the fact that I may have dirtied that clean little view of yourself you have in your mind!"
Tifa had never been vary adept at verbal arguments. She knew it too. When someone began to shout at her, her instincts were to clam up, to walk away, to try to defuse the situation. Sometimes that worked, more often it left her feeling as if she had lost. It was just another of her (to her mind) many faults. She wasn't a quick witted verbal thinker and as a result of those traits, found herself no argument to defend herself with, except for the very simple.
"That's not true!" she shouted.
"It is!" Reno insisted, leaning forward, even closer to her, forcing her to step back, until she felt the cold immovable stone of the building wall behind her.
"You think you're better than me," he continued. "You think you're better than everyone, but deep down inside you know you're not! In fact, you're a lot worse than me. I'm a bastard yeah, but at least I'm up front about it. I don't pretend to be something I'm not. You're nothing but a two faced bitch!"
By now Tifa was near tears. Reno's words felt like a knife tearing at her gut and she could feel herself falling apart from the assault. What was worse, she knew he could see it too. She mustered what will she had left for one more retort.
"Fuck you!"
"No, fuck you!"
He could see she was crumbling in front of him. He wanted to say more, wanted to let it all out, to finish her off, to leave her weeping and helpless, but suddenly he couldn't, neither of them could speak, for after those words he found himself savagely pressing his lips against her own.
Believe it or not it hadn't been any plan on his part, or at least, that's what he told himself. One minute she was in front of him, their faces apart, then he was kissing her. It wasn't a peck on the lips, not at all. He was no less angry than he had been a moment ago. It was a savage kiss, an angry kiss, his lips pressed against hers roughly, thrusting forward, forcing her head back, greedily thirsting for her.
For a moment she was too stunned to react, for another moment he felt her body softening beneath him, but both moments passed, well, in a moment, and after that, she shoved him away so violently he stumbled backwards, almost losing his balance and falling on his ass.
"No!" she exclaimed, her face flushed. "No, this is not going to happen. I'm not some bimbo who you can just kiss and make everything all better. I'm not going to buy that. Not after all that's happened, not after you walked out on me last night!"
It was funny, he had been angry at her, downright angry, and yet with that kiss, all his anger seemed to suddenly fade away. For a short time there he had wanted to hurt her, he had actually wanted to hurt her. He had seen the tears begin to form in the eyes and he'd wanted to see more. He'd wanted to see her fall down to her knees sobbing in front of him and he didn't even know why. No, that wasn't true. Deep down inside he did know, even though he didn't want to admit it, even to himself. He wanted to hurt her because he loved her, which at face value of course, made no sense, but Reno was nothing if not complicated. He'd fallen in love with her and he hated that. It was something he had never wanted, something that was anathema to him, and it was all her fault! He hated her for making him love her. It was enough to drive a man to drink.
And with that thought his anger faded. It was just too much, just too funny. How could he hate her and love her so much at the same time? It was impossible. It was an impossible situation, and he could only laugh like a maniac or cry like a baby, and he'd die before he did the latter.
So he did laugh. At the sheer absurdity of the situation, at himself, at life. The change was so abrupt that Tifa could at first just stand there and stare at him as if he truly had lost his mind. Then her face darkened as she drew all the wrong conclusions of his laughing immediately after she had mentioned the night before.
"What's so funny?" she demanded, and it was as if the anger had drained out of him only to resurface in her, as if he had passed it to her like some kind of disease. Was he mocking her now?
"I'm sorry," he said, getting a hold of himself. "I didn't mean it. I didn't mean to hurt you last night."
She just stood there, not sure what to make of that, or his sudden change in behavior. It was obvious he wasn't angry anymore, though that didn't really make her feel any better.
"Bullshit," she snapped. "It was what you were after all along, wasn't it? That was what you were angling for right from the beginning. All you wanted to do this whole time was get me in bed, wasn't it?"
"Oh get over yourself," he told her.
"It's true!" she insisted.
"It's not!"
"Then what? What were you really after? Why did you do it? Why did you walk out right after we..."
She stopped, looking around, for the first time seeming to realize they were both out in the middle of the sidewalk shouting at the top of their lungs at one another.
"...after we made love," she finished, the volume turned down significantly.
Reno just stood there looking at her, realizing suddenly that he had painted himself into a corner by denying what she was saying, for he didn't have a satisfactory answer to this query, at least, not one he wanted to tell her. Because he was scared, because he was afraid he had fallen in love? He absolutely wouldn't tell her that. The proverbial wild horses couldn't pull that admission from him.
He opened his mouth, then closed it, searching quickly through his mind for any response that would let him hide the truth without sounding callous and coming up pretty much blank, and with that, he found himself replying with probably the lamest excuse he had ever come up with in his life.
"I... I don't know," he told her. "I was... confused."
From the look on her face it was obvious she wasn't buying that for a minute.
"Confused, oh, that's original. You're such a proficient liar and you can't come up with something better than that?"
"It's the truth," he lied.
"Confused about what?" she demanded.
"I don't know. That's what confused means, doesn't it?"
"You are so full of shit!"
"I told you, I'm telling the truth."
She didn't buy that, but suddenly another thought occurred to him.
"That's what this is all about, isn't it? It's not about what I did to that woman. It's about last night."
Tifa spun around, turning on him.
"It's about everything! You helped save my daughters life and I'm grateful for that, I'll always be grateful but that doesn't change who you are, or who I am. You're a vicious thug Reno, and that's all you'll ever be. I thought you could change, I thought you had left that behind you and maybe.. maybe it's true, maybe I'm glad you didn't, for my daughters sake, but that doesn't change anything. We weren't meant to be friends Reno, and we were certainly never meant to be lovers."
Tifa had had it. She had had enough. There was no sense beating herself up over this. There was no sense even discussing it.
With that, she turned and started to walk away.
"Hey, where you going?" Reno questioned.
"To get my daugthter!" she snapped, making it perfectly obvious he wasn't invited.
Reno walked quickly after her.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" he questioned.
"You're what's wrong with me!"
He stopped, feeling his anger start to return, but he suppressed it. It wasn't going to do any good in this situation.
Perhaps he should let her go. It was what he half wanted, wanted to push her away, to reject this feeling inside himself, to go back to being what he always was, what he knew, what he was comfortable with. At the same time though, he wanted desperately for her not to walk away, not to go, to leave it like this.
He followed her for a moment, not sure what he wanted, or what he was going to do. Then he stopped suddenly and raised his arms as if in supplication.
"So that's it then?"
"That's what?" she said, continuing to walk, not looking back.
"You're just going to walk away?"
"Yes!"
He stared at her. She didn't turn, didn't look back, didn't pause.
"You know, its funny," he said, raising his voice once again as the distance increased between them. "Cloud... Cloud was so wonderful, wasn't he? You always have thought that, haven't you, even after he left you. After he walked out. Just like I did. When I said he was a jerk, when I said he hurt you, you defended him, and what was your excuse for him?"
She didn't stop. She didn't reply. He took a step forward, yelling now to make sure she heard him.
"You told me he wasn't malicious, that he was just... confused. So why don't you hate him? Why don't you hate him too? Why is it okay for him to be confused and not me?"
That got her to stop, at least. She didn't turn though, even when Reno walked up beside her.
"I'll tell you why, because I'm Reno, that's why. I'm just a vicious thug, just like you said. A vicious thug that you never gave a chance to, did you?"
Still she didn't reply, just stood there. Finally she turned slowly around and he could see her face, but for once, he couldn't read the expression on it.
Indeed, she wasn't sure herself what she was thinking. She had given him a chance, had been more than fair with him, hadn't she? She wasn't sure if there was a seed of truth in what he was saying or not, but the mere fact that she had some doubts was enough to give her pause.
"What do you want from me Reno?"
It was a simple question and yet, what answer could he give her? He wanted to push her away and at the same time he wanted to grab hold of her and squeeze her so tightly that he'd never have to let her go again. He didn't want to be in love but he was trapped, for the only thing worse than living with her was living without her.
"I just want to be friends," he told her. "Is that too much to ask?"
Tifa shivered, her own anger fading at this simple request. During their heated argument she had forgotten how cold it was, and how little her leather jacket protected her from the elements. She didn't reply for a long time, wasn't sure how to reply. How much of what he was saying was true? Maybe he was a vicious thug, maybe he had always been, would always be, but there was at least one difference this time. He wasn't the one working for an evil corporation. He hadn't been in this for gil, or prestige, or to raise his standing with his peers. No, he had done what done for one simple reason, to save a little girl's life.
"No," she said softly. "No it's not."
His hands dropped to his sides. The silence seemed to stretch on endlessly.
"I have to get going," she ventured eventually.
Reno nodded, his head bobbing up and down for what seemed to Tifa like an unusually long time.
"I'll see you tomorrow then?."
"Yeah," she said. Then repeated it. "Yeah, I guess so."
The conversation seemed to have ended with a whimper. Neither one of them seemed to have much else to say.
"All right then," Reno said. "See ya."
He turned and walked away, even as she returned his goodbye. For a long time she just stood there, staring after him long after he was gone. Finally, after another shiver reminded her of just how cold she was she turned and, wrapping her arms around herself, hurried off.