She knew he didn’t take well to being woken, reacting before he was awake enough to realize what he was doing, which was plenty dangerous to the unprepared.
--and--
Even if he’d wanted to think so, the hands were too big, the callouses not right for the sorts of things that Tifa did, and it was skewed from anything he could really expect from any of the others he could call friends.
I love those two lines. Both say a lot about the man without saying things specifically and holding the reader's hand. Perfect examples of "show, don't tell."
I like the pace of this, and there's some lovely cadence changes in the sentences: it doesn't read flat. A bittersweet story, and terrific work from you, as usual. *smiles*
Just my opinion, but I really think this fic easily passes the litmus test for an R rating. There's no profanity above 'hell' and 'damn', there aren't any squicks, and the sex is briefly described and isn't graphic in the least. I would hate to think that any readers avoiding NC-17 fics would take a pass on this lovely piece simply because of the rating. *shrugs* You may wish to reconsider.