Ch.7

Zack woke up the next morning nice and early as he always did. He turned to look around the room and saw that Cloud was still fast asleep and Sephiroth… well Sephiroth just wasn't even in the room. He started to wonder if the guy had even come back, so Zack quickly got dressed and was ready to head out. Cloud was still a bit tired so he decided to go on ahead of him for the investigation.

Running down the stairs he saw the door open and Tifa ran in. He smiled as he ran up to her, repressing the urge to give her a hug. He really wanted to, but he knew that he had to stick to finding Sephiroth first. But it still was such a conflicting feeling in his mind.

"Hey Tifa, what's up? Did you find anything?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I found out that Sephiroth is at the Shinra Manor."

"That big mansion outside of town?"

"Yup," Tifa answered. "Shinra has owned it for a long time."

"Ahh gotcha! Well thanks Tifa, I guess I will head on out there now."

"Be careful Zack."

Zack gave her a smile. "Oh you know me, of course I'll be careful. I'll see you as soon as you figure out what Sephiroth is up to, okay?"

"Okay," Tifa said with a smile in return. "I'll see you then."

After that Zack headed out of the Inn and started walking towards the manor. Only a few feet away from the Inn though his phone rang. Picking it up he heard the familiar soft and familiar voice of Aerith.

"Aerith!" he exclaimed happily.

"I finally got through," Aeirth replied.

"Yeah! And guess…." Zack was about to go off telling her everything that was on his mind, but he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. He sighed before closing his eyes.

"Hmm? Guess what?"

"Not now. It's not really a good time. I'll call you later though?"

"Oh, I see. But come, you can at least finish what you were going to say. It's rude to leave a girl hanging like that."

"You're right. I couldn't do that. Okay real quick. But I met her… she's here. Tifa… I actually talked with her again."

The day after Zack had found out that Cloud was from the same town that Tifa was living in, he had ran to Aerith as fast as he could. He needed to express all the excitement that he felt bubbling inside of him and he knew that Aerith would listen. She still listened and laughed at his energy, seeing it as very cute and passionate that he could care this much.

Once he learned he would be going to Nibelheim he was even more ecstatic and Aerith told him that he better keep her in check, as she wanted in on his love life since he so easily poured out his feelings to Tifa to her.

"Oh Zack! That's wonderful to hear. I hope everything went well between you two."

"Hey you know me Aerith, of course it went well! She was happy to see me and everything! I am going to make every day here with her count."

"You better! And you know I will wanna hear all about it."

"I will, don't worry," Zack replied before he said goodbye to Aerith.

After that was taken care of, Zack went back on his way to find out where Sephiroth had gone. In the end he found the man, but he had locked himself in the library that was in the basement of the manor. He had been muttering things that he read in the book he held and when Zack tried asking him anything, he just asked to be alone.

It was a pointless effort, and Zack knew it. With nothing more to do he headed back outside of the manor and headed back into town. On his way there he spotted Tifa standing next to the water tower, seemingly occupied with something on her phone.

Grinning, Zack carefully moved closer to her, trying his best to not make a sound. When he got behind her and wrapped his arms around her as quickly ready to shout her name as he did so. What he did not expect though was to be elbowed in the gut within the flash of an eye.

He staggered back before he fell to the ground. Looking up he was met with Tifa's shocked expression. "Z-Zack!? What do you think you were doing?!"

"Sneaking up for a surprise hug of course! Like I used to do when we were kids!" Zack exclaimed.

Tifa couldn't help but laugh a little at that. "Well we aren't exactly kids anymore. You okay though?" Tifa walked closer and held out her hand to Zack to help him up.

He took hold of her and pulled himself back up to his feet. Right away he stretched before placing his hands on his sides. "Totally! You know me, I can take a hit any day and come back ready for more. You know, if you've been practicing how to fight, I'd love to see more of it cause damn, I didn't expect such a quick attack like that. Where'd you learn to do that?"

Slowly Tifa looked away, her eyes becoming distant. "I've been teaching myself, well not exactly. I mean I have a teacher who has been training me but I practice a lot in my own personal time. I was starting to think… that…"

"Hey… what is it?"

With not much of a reaction to his words, Tifa crossed her arms. "I was worried that my certain knight and shining armor would never show up. I didn't want to just wait around forever being defenseless."

"Oh… Oh Tifa I am so sorry. I know it's been years, but I finally made it. You know I would never wanna break my promise."

"I know you did," Tifa said as she finally turned around to face him. "I'm really glad you finally did, but I just needed to do something with my time as I waited."

"I get it, but hey that just means you could also end up protecting me sometime," Zack laughed before giving one of his usual cheerful smiles. "We could protect each other and I think it would be pretty great."

"Hmm I might have to agree to that."

"Do I get a hug now?" Zack asked, pressed his hands together to give a small pleading look.

Tifa nodded and before she could even move, Zack already had his arms around her. He breathed in happily before exhaling it all out slowly. "You know, I've really missed you."

"I've missed you too, Zack."

"I never stopped thinking about you, honest! You can ask my friend Aerith. I bet you two would really get along. But I really kept on thinking about you all of this time," Zack said as he rested his head against Tifa's.

Just this moment of having her in his embrace, it warmed his entire heart. He hadn't felt this relaxed since probably when he initially met Aerith. But this was something else far stronger. His heart was pulling him, telling him to be closer to Tifa, to never let her go.

"I'm glad Zack, I'm just so… I don't know how to explain it. I just feel…"

"Overwhelmed? Just a lot of feeling pushing in your chest? Nervousness?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"I feel the same, but when I am here with you right now, it all goes away. Everything feels so nice when I have you in my arms here. Like I'm finally complete or something."

A light laugh filled Zack's ears. A wonderfully sweet laugh. "That is probably the cheesiest thing I ever heard."

"Well… is it working?" Zack asked smugly.

Tifa pulled back from their hug, staring at Zack. Reaching out she placed a hand on his cheek. "It might."

Placing his hand over hers he beamed. "Well we still got plenty of time for me to try some more. Wanna maybe go grab some breakfast? I just realized I haven't eaten anything yet all day. It will be my treat."

"All right Zack, let's go. Plus we can talk and finally have time to catch up."

"Yeah, you know I am going to spend as much time as I can with you. I want to know more, I want to know what you've been up to. And also we totally gotta train together. I really wanna see your moves!"

"One thing at a time Zack," Tifa replied. "We got plenty of time right?"

"Of course. Though when I am with you there feels like there is no time at all, just us."

Another laugh escaped from Tifa's lips. "Is this how you are now? Just trying to be flirty every chance you get?"

"It might just be! But you gotta talk to me more and find out."

Reaching for his hand, Tifa started to pull him along. "Then let's get going, shall we?"

I still got more ideas, but I just have been thinking what else I could have them talk about and do. Any ideas?