Disclaimer: Deedaa. FFVII and co belong not to me. Kapish?

A/N: Ack, yet another project that I've picked up when there's so much more stuff to be done elsewhere. This is one out of at least five chapters that is part of a challenge at the lj community stagesoflove. I'm trying to craft a believable Reno/Tifa relationship here out of what's canon (ie. FFVII, AC). Hopefully I'll be able to succeed with this. Here goes.

The Raging Silence

The sound of his heavy breathing, the blood on his lips, the sharp sizzling smell of seared hair and flesh keep him standing. When her leg swings upwards in a sharply angled kick that could have easily taken his head off – Holy Leviathan! This girl has one heck of a kick – he only barely blocks it with his trusty electro-mag rod. He meets her eyes briefly – they promise retribution - and flashes her a feral grin that promises pain; she snarls in return, moving aside swiftly before he can flick the switch on his EMR and her spiky-haired blond friend charges forward instead.

Throughout his mechanical blocking, taunting – Reno has this down to an art now; the blond and the man with a gun for a prosthetic arm have nothing on Tseng and Rude – and hitting back twice as hard as they hit him, Reno only has eyes for the girl with fire in her eyes, with fists that hit harder than he ever thought a woman could hit and he has to remind himself that she's The Enemy.

He has to remind himself that he shouldn't be mesmerized by the way she moves just so, the way she executes her punches, fingers packed tight against her palm while her knuckles deliver the blow for maximum impact – even if he's the one being beaten up by those lovely, lovely fists; and those legs? To fucking DIE for! – and the physical hurt is a Very Good Thing to him – where the fuck is Tseng? – just so he won't feel as guilty for killing all the innocents in Sector 7 – he's read her file and she has a bar there; he wishes that he'd been there, even if it was just once - just because Shinra wants to teach a lesson to AVALANCHE.

The telltale sound of chopper blades going whumpf whumpf whumpf in the night announce Tseng's arrival, and Reno isn't sure whether he should feel relieved or disappointed that this fight has come to an end – more time with her, pleasepleaseplease! - but he knows that he wants to leave a lasting impression – not the one that they'll hate him for because they will – on her, and he wants to stake a claim on her, beautiful thing that she is.

He takes her by surprise when he grabs her hands and spins her round – she has no choice but to move with him unless she wants to fall – before he mouths 'Goodbye' and steps off the building. Reno doesn't fall far because the chopper is waiting, but he likes watching the emotions run openly – shock, worry - on her face and thinks that he isn't deserving of them even as he depresses the little red button that triggers all the wired bombs connected to each other like dominoes.

The destructive silence of the Plate falling is endless.

'So sorry', he mouths, but she will never see it because she is screaming for her friends, screaming for her home, - nonononodontmakethatfacepleaseno – and he sees clearly how she slides between anguish and grief and anger – fuck, I did this to her – and back until he is too far away, and she is just a tiny speck. Reno falls back on the stretcher that has been prepared for him in advance, pulling an arm over his eyes, and he surprises even himself when the mad chuckle emits from his lips.

"So sorry," he echoes himself – and he can just imagine her angry, tear-stained face; she'd look so much more beautiful if she smiled, but that's not the way things are – before he falls away into oblivion, exhausted, but her ruby-red eyes and the feel of her fingers against his haunt him.