Author's Note: Yet another Reno-Cera story, of sorts... This one is based in the world of my brillinat friend, LadyKarai and her Kindgom Hearts story The Night Within My Eyes. Reno and Cera both appear in her story, but with a few slight changes: Reno's a rich kid from Midgar and Cera is the daughter of a poor farmer on Balamb. They're both about nineteen years old, making them roughly twenty or so in this story. There's no ShinRa and no Turks, but Rufus and the others do make their appearances in here at one point or another.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy this little alternate look into what Reno and Cera's wedding might have been like.

Disclaimer: As always, I retain no ownership of any of the characters from Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII or the Kingdom Hearts franchise. They are all the sole property of Square-Enix. Yuko belongs to LadyKarai. I'm just borrowing her for the time being.

Yuko stood in the center of the small, crowded room, clutching the headpiece of the veil in one hand and staring at it almost wistfully as she stroked her other hand over the fine, shimmering tulle that flowed down to the floor. She remained oblivious to the commotion around her as the others scrambled to fix a hole near the seam at the bottom of the bride's dress, her mind playing and replaying the conversation she had had the previous night with Riku after the rehearsal dinner.

“You never know,” he had said. “We could be next.”

Ever since he had said those words, she had felt somewhat detached from the rest of the world. Marriage was a big commitment, and as much as she loved him, she wasn't sure she was ready to be thinking about it just yet.

Get a grip, she reprimanded herself. It's not like he proposed to you or anything. He simply mentioned it as a future possibility.

Someone bumped into her, jarring her from her thoughts, and she looked up into the face of Cera's friend Casia. She was slightly older than all of them, at the age of twenty-two, and had lost her husband in the Heartless invasion on Balamb. Despite her loss, however, she still managed to keep a smile on her face that lit up her green eyes with an infectious sparkle.

“Sorry, Yuko,” she apologized, tucking a light brown ringlet of hair behind one ear. “There was a sewing kit around here somewhere. Have you seen it?”

Yuko shook her head carefully, praying that her blonde hair would remain secure in her own elegant updo as she moved aside and looked around on the vanity table she had been standing in front of. There was plenty of makeup and other various beauty supplies, but no sewing kit.

“You can't even see it, Cera!” Yuffie commented, shrugging her slender shoulders. “Why are you so fixated on sewing it up?”

“Because,” Cera replied calmly, though Yuko could see by the look on her face that she was barely holding her sanity together, “I need everything to be perfect today. The last thing I want to do is give those... those people a reason to complain.”

Yuffie winced, obviously sorry she had brought up the subject. Reno's family was a topic Cera didn't care to discuss much, ever since his father had tried to pay her off so that she would break off the engagement to his son.

The bride's three attendants fell into silence as they renewed their search for the missing sewing kit, and Yuko found herself feeling quite grateful that Riku's parents had welcomed her so warmly. If and when their time came, she wouldn't have the need to be stressing over a tiny hole in her dress the way Cera was.

“I got it!” Casia called after a moment, waving the small travel kit in her hand as she trotted over to Cera and knelt down to fix her dress.

“Breathe, Reno... That's it, just breathe...”

Reno concentrated on taking deep breaths as Zell coached him. He had been fine all morning, but once they had reached the church he began panicking. He was still only half-dressed, his shirt untucked and his tuxedo jacket hanging open while his tie lay on a nearby table. Zell, his best man, had been trying for the last half hour – without much success – to get him to put the tie on. Every time he got it around his neck, the redhead would have another sudden panic attack.

“I can't do this, yo,” he insisted, running both hands back through his messy hair. “I mean, I love Cera and all, but I... I can't!”

“You can and you will, especially after the fuss you made when Father said he didn't approve.”

Reno let go of his head and turned to glare at his brother, Rufus. The younger man was leaning back against the wall in his perfectly tailored white suit, arms crossed over his chest. A lock of his dark blonde hair fell into his icy blue eyes, so much like his but so completely different as well. If Reno was the rebellious one, Rufus was the one who always followed daddy's orders and did whatever it took to stay on the man's good side – even if it meant bribery and lies.

“How did you convince him to let you marry her, anyway?” Sora wondered. He was seated on a small, wooden bench along the wall next to the door, and had been chatting with Riku when the redhead decided to have his latest in a series of anxiety attacks.

“Well,” Rufus spoke up before his older brother could answer, pushing off the wall and walking over to the hunched-over bridegroom, arms still crossed. “Father was not pleased when Reno brought Cera home to meet the family. But he tried to write her off as just another one of my brother's whores, thinking he would tire of her in a week or two.”

Reno's hand clenched into a fist and he glared at Rufus, his jaw set in a tight line. “Don't you talk about her like that,” he demanded, voice shaking with outrage.

“Father's words, not mine,” Rufus clarified, waving off Reno's reaction with one hand. “Anyway... When he announced they were going to be married, well... You can only imagine how furious he was.”

“He threatened to disinherit me on the spot,” Reno supplied, turning to Sora. “He figured I loved the money and the lifestyle more than her. When I told him to go right ahead, he refused to do it because he believed it was what I wanted all along. And, in a way, it is.”

“You see, Reno here has never been much for the family business. However, as the first-born son, it is his duty to take over the company someday. Father knows I would be more than happy to take his place, but he's a right bastard and refuses to skip over my brother in favor of me.”

Reno let out a small chuckle. “No offense, man, but if he put you in charge, you'd probably run that place into the ground faster than I ever would.”

“Pardon?” Rufus asked, blinking in surprise at him.

“You heard me, yo. You have no real people skills. Sure, you're good at the business aspect, but without people you have no business.”

“Well, in all my--”

“Guys!” Sora cut off Rufus, standing up and moving between the two brothers in order to avoid a brawl from breaking out. “Can we get back to the story, please?” He looked at Reno, who nodded, then to Rufus, who sighed and rolled his eyes before resuming his previous position against the wall.

“Anyway,” Reno continued. “I refused to back down, so instead my dad went after Cera. Offered to pay her off if she would just break off the engagement and disappear from my life for good. She knew better, though, and told him that even if she did take the money and leave, I would do everything in my power to find her again.”

“So he finally agreed to it after that?” Sora wondered.

“Oh no,” Riku spoke up, finally joining the conversation, a smile on his face. “There's more.”

“Next I attempted to put in a good word for her with Father,” Rufus continued, acting as though this act had been one of great honor and nobility.

“You only put in a 'good word' after I bribed you,” Reno muttered under his breath, earning him another icy glare from his younger brother.

“As I was saying,” Rufus continued through clenched teeth, then cleared his throat before speaking once more. “I told him that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to let Reno marry a poor girl from Balamb. After all, it might actually look good for the company: Rich heir reaches out a helping hand to the poverty-stricken community that has suffered such a great loss recently due to this... invasion... meets a girl and marries her.”

“Except I thought it sounded a bit too much like I was marrying Cera for the wrong reasons,” Reno snarled. “Like she was just a charity case or something.”

“And so Reno argued with Father about that and we were back at square one, even though I had had him convinced to let him marry her.”

Reno muttered a few choice words under his breath, some of which shocked Sora so much his lower jaw dropped open at the mere thought anyone could ever call their family something like that.

“But then Cera and I came up with a plan of our own which, fortunately, worked out wonderfully.”

“And what's that?” Sora asked curiously.

Reno turned to him and smirked, his blue eyes holding a familiar, mischievous sparkle.

“We told my old man she was knocked up.”