Ever After
Tifa's Story
-Takes place following Advent Children. I haven't played the other games that follow, so forgive me for any blatant mistakes.-
By Racxiam
Teeth scraped the sensitive skin at the nape of Tifa's neck harshly, and she squealed, half in pain, and half in...was it delight, or delirium? Either way, this seemingly innocent noise illicited a deep-throated growl from the blonde pressing down on her, and the next thing she knew, her lips were being crushed by his, and she was being half-lifted off the bed as he struggled to remove her scrap of a dress. Her fingers tangled in his hair, and not even the sound of tearing fabric -impatient much?- could bring her to draw back from the heated kiss, the feeling of his bare, sweat-dampened skin pressing down on her, his calloused fingers combing her scalp, she squeezed her eyes shut tight, ready to scream his name-
BREEEEEP-BREEEP-BREEEEP-BREEEP- BREEE-
Tifa slapped her hand down on the snooze button with a wearied groan, and squeezed her eyes shut tight, trying for just a few more moments' rest before she had to begin the day. She gave up with a mournful sigh a moment later, when she realized there was no going back to the place she'd been a moment ago; but where was that place? In Cloud's arms? Another sigh, and she raked her hands back through her hair, feeling the thin layer of sweat that coated her body clearer with every passing moment. She told herself she was being ridiculous, and grabbed her robe off the back of her bedroom door before she walked down the hall, looking forward to a nice, refreshing, cold shower.
This was the sixth time she'd dreamt about him in the last few weeks, which was crazy since she hadn't actually seen him in about a month now. He'd left shortly after they'd beat those crazed brothers -Kadaj, Loz and Yazoo- and hadn't returned yet...although he had started answering his phone, which was nice. Still, she hadn't had dreams like this since she was a hormone-driven teenager, and even then, they'd never been about Cloud. He was just that loner boy who made her a fanciful promise on the water tower one night, so long ago. At the time, she hadn't paid much attention to it; it wasn't until they met up in AVALANCHE, years later, that Tifa really began to notice him. But still...these dreams...they felt so real! She checked her neck in the mirror before stepping into the shower, and was actually surprised not to see raw scratch marks where she'd felt his canines drag across her skin. She sighed, it was a dream. Get over it, Lockhart. You're losing it.
Once she'd finished her shower, Tifa yawned and tied her damp hair back with a ponytail, and headed down the hall, pausing at the first door and quirking an eyebrow to find that the light was already peeking out from under the door, and she could hear a distinctly childish humming coming from within. "Marlene?" She called through the door, taking the doorknob in her hand and pushing the door open slowly.
"Tifa! Finally!" The little girl exclaimed, and hopped to her feet, hurrying over to Tifa with a hairbrush in her hand. Her light brown hair hung in slightly curly waves around her face, and she looked up at Tifa expectantly. Tifa took the hairbrush, but looked down at her blankly. Marlene sighed. "You promised you'd do my hair special today, Tifa! Don't tell me you forgot!"
"Of course not!" Tifa exclaimed as realisation hit her like a runaway truck. Marlene nodded, and crossed the room back to the dresser, and she stood on the stool that allowed her enough height to actually see herself in the mirror positioned above it. With a smile, Tifa got behind her, and within minutes, Marlene's hair was twisted atop her head in two cute little buns, each tied with a pink ribbon. "You like?" Tifa asked, looking over her shoulder, and after eying herself in the mirror critically for a moment, she nodded vigorously.
"Yes! I love it! Thank you, Tifa!" She squeaked and spun around to hug Tifa, before she hopped off her stool and dashed off, leaving Tifa to smile in her wake. Well, at least someone was cheerful this morning. Yawning, Tifa went to the next room in the hallway, and knocked on the door softly.
"Denzel?" She called through the door. "Are you up yet?" She knocked again, and when she got no response, she pushed the door open and stepped forth into the darkness. She blinked to let her eyes adjust, then picked her way through the littered fragments of toys and clothes to Denzel's bedside, where she crouched down. Sure enough, the brunette boy was still sound asleep, his curly hair falling into his eyes, one arm hanging off the bed. She shook his shoulder gently. "Time to get up, Denzel." She muttered, and gave his shoulder another shake.
"Don't wanna..." Denzel's eyes squeezed more tightly shut, and Tifa smiled, knowing he was awake.
"Be downstairs in fifteen or else you won't be getting any breakfast, and you'll have to go to your first day of school in your pyjamas." She warned, before she stood up and headed for the stairs. As she passed the bathroom, she noticed the light was on in it, and she could hear that same childish humming again. She just smiled to herself andheaded downstairs, deciding between bacon and eggs or pancakes and waffles for their first ever day of school.
It had been an effort, building a school house in the town of Edge, and everyone had to contribute, but everyone(the kids excluded) had agreed that they needed to start educating the kids again, since it had been two years since the fall of Midgar and no school was in place yet. Marlene was ecstatic, absolutely thrilled with the prospect of learning, but then, she was just in Kindergarten. Denzel grumbled about how he'd rather help out in the bar, but Tifa would hear none of that -these kids would have the education she'd never gotten, and that was that. Even if she had to tie Denzel up and drag him there by force.
As she neared the bottom of the stairs, she slowed. Was that a flicker of movement in the kitchen? Marlene was in the bathroom...no way had Denzel beat her downstairs...so that meant it had to be an intruder. Her brow settled into a scowl, she figured every thief in town knew better than to come here, to the home of former AVALANCHE-ers Cloud Strife and Tifa Lockhart. Well, maybe he wasn't local. She curled her hands into fists, and stealthily came down the stairs, keeping to the shadows. Light spilled halfway across the kitchen, and Tifa peeked around the corner to see the intruder...rummaging through the fridge? What kind of a burglar stole FOOD? That was just wrong on so many levels. No way was he getting away with this, Tifa thought, as she prepared herself to attack the shadowy figure. Finally, when he straightened up and closed the fridge, Tifa knew it was her time to strike, and she pounced with lightning speed. It wasn't until she already had the intruder pinned to the floor, hand poised above her head for a throat-crushing blow, that she tuned into the voice of the one she had pinned -and swore to herself.
"...it's me, Tifa! Jesus, it's Cloud!" In her moment of confusion, no doubt fearing for his life, Cloud clutched her shoulders in his hands and turned her over, so that he was the one holding her down. Color flooded her cheeks as memories of her dream from last night came skittering back, the sound of her own moans loud in her ears, before she shoved both them, and Cloud, away from her.
"Omigosh I'm so sorry Cloud!" She exclaimed, blushing as she scrambled to her feet and realized that she was soaking wet. She walked over to the light switch near the door and flicked it on, to reveal that both she and Cloud were now wearing what seemed to be the entire contents of a jug of pulp-free orange juice. Testiment to this fact was the empty plastic container, lying on its side under the table. She sighed, and looked from her own ruined clothes to Cloud's.
"I'll clean up the kitchen if you'll do the laundry." Cloud offered, already peeling off his shirt to reveal washboard abs, damp from the orange juice and glistening in the fluorescent kitchen lights. Tifa gaped for a moment, but recovered before he pulled the shirt all the way off and went over to the counter, putting on a pot of coffee to distract herself. She started to speak before she turned around, but when she did, it was to drop the mug she was holding, letting it clatter across the floor loudly. Thank goodness they still hadn't gotten around to buying the ceramic dishes.
"Yeah, okay...go get chan-Cloud!" Tifa's voice changed to a squeal as the blonde tossed his shirt at her and began unzipping his pants, her face turning six shades of red as he looked up at her.
"What?" He asked, all innocence, and Tifa rolled her eyes and stomped over to him, seized his wrist and proceeded to drag him up the stairs, only stopping to shove him into his own room and slam the door behind him.
"Men." She sighed, then went into the bathroom and proceeded to take another shower...only it didn't need to be cold, this time around.
Ten minutes later, Tifa was throwing her and Cloud's clothing into a stain-removal solution to soak for a little while, before she climbed back up to the main floor to make breakfast. Cloud was scrubbing the floor(thankfully fully clothed), and she headed to the fridge to get breakfast started. She had justed pulled out the eggs and bacon when Cloud sat upright and looked at her.
"Hell of a way to welcome me back." He commented, and she could hear the smirk on his face, it was so obvious. She cracked a few eggs into a clean pan and set the bacon to fry before she turned around to look at him, smiling pleasantly.
"Welcome home, Cloud. Did you have a nice trip? Plenty of breaking and entering, or did you save that for your grand return?" She teased, leaning back on the counter as she looked down at him, sitting with his legs stretched out on the floor. He'd changed into a pair of jeans and a white muscle-shirt that showed off his muscular arms, and even let one see the outline of the perfectly formed muscles beneath it...not that Tifa cared about that. Cloud was her friend, nothing more. Telling herself that, she spun around and poked at the simmering food with a spatula.
"I didn't break in. I have a key." He pointed out, and Tifa gave him a look over her shoulder.
"You could have told me you were back." She told him pointedly, and he just shrugged.
"It was late, and you were sleeping so peacefully." He explained, and Tifa looked back to the bacon, the ramifications of what he'd said not hitting her until a moment later, when she spun around, holding her spatula like an accusatory pointer, and took a menacing step towards him.
"How would you know how I was sleeping?" She asked, a slightly panicked tone to her voice. You see, ever since she was a child, Tifa had talked in her sleep. Her friends used to bug her about it when they had sleepovers, and she'd even once woken Yuffie up with her ramblings; the ninja was a light sleeper. She was a quiet talker, so it didn't matter much while they were traveling, but if Cloud was actually awake...with the dreams she'd been having last night, Tifa was sure she didn't want him to hear her! Cloud smirked at her.
"I was just checking up on you." He held his hands up defensively. "And Marlene, and Denzel." He added, then frowned. "I wanted to see that you were all okay." Tifa sighed, it didn't seem like he'd heard anything...incriminating. "It's not like I broke into your room to molest you or something."
Tifa rolled her eyes, and returned to her cooking. "Fine...but for future reference, I'd prefer it if you didn't come into my room to watch me sleep, okay? Just wake me up next time."
She heard Cloud stand up but didn't bother to turn around. "All right, I guess that's fair..." he agreed, and Tifa sighed with relief. At least he wasn't going to be difficult. "Oh, I like your night-gown, by the way." He added, and Tifa blinked for a moment, as she tried to remember what she'd been sleeping in last night...she didn't have any actual sleepwear, so she tended to wear whatever happened to be lying around. She heard the door that lead to the bar swing closed before she remembered.
Last night, she'd been doing laundry until late, to make sure the kids' clothes were clean in time for school. Since there wasn't much to do, she'd grabbed what she'd found on the floor of Cloud's bedroom too, in an attempt to save some water, and be nice to Cloud. By the time she'd finished, she was really tired, so she just grabbed something that looked big enough to fit her, without realizing it was one of Cloud's old shirts. It was probably still lying on her bathroom floor right now. "Shit!" She swore, well, at least now she knew why she was dreaming about Cloud...did clothes really perpetuate sexual fantasies of their owner? Gaia, that was a scary thought. She shivered to think about it. Maybe she'd explain to Cloud later...or she'd commit ritual suicide on the roof. Either way, she figured it was a decent plan. She flipped the baconjust as footsteps came downstairs, andthe chattering of two miniscule AVALANCHE-ers reached her ears, and she smiled.
She divided the food in four equal portions amongst the four plates, knowing that whatever the kids didn't eat Cloud would finish off, and then he'd probably bug Tifa for more besides. She set out four places at the table and was just pouring out two mugs of blacker-than-black sear-your-nosehairs-off coffee(Tifa liked it strong) when Cloud re-entered the bar, sat down, and they all enjoyed a nice, quiet breakfast together.
Well, after Denzel and Marlene were done squealing and tackling Cloud at random...a bit funny, that. Tifa leaned back in her chair, inhaling the scent of her coffee contentedly...aah, this was the life.
Meanwhile, in the Midgar, a man in a painstakingly pressed white lab coat was watching the exchange of familial love on several different blurry screens, paying particular attention to Cloud and Tifa as he did so. A smile curved on his pointed, weaselly face, and a cold, hight-pitched shriek of a laugh escaped from his throat in a most maniacal fashion. "Not much longer now, my dear, you won't have to wait too much more." He cooed to a slimy tentacle, suspended in a vat of glowing green goo next to him, in a way that one whispered sweet nothings to a lover. Soon..."
A/N: Umm..yeah. Tell me what you thought, pretty please with sugar and ice cream? This is just the first chapter, there will be more to come! "Soon..." -Insert maniacal laughter here-