Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII and its characters, they solely belong to Square-enix (Formerly Squaresoft).

One: Chance meeting

Tifa found herself being anxious on what to wear for the night, she tapped her chin with her forefinger while she pursed her lips, she was torn between wearing the black and white striped fitted long sleeved shirt with a high waist black skirt that goes only in the middle of her thighs along with some black stocking's and black ankle boots or the red long sleeved shirt with some grown up, sexy denim jumper and some high cut military boots.

"Girly girl in black? Or casual?" She whispered to herself. She smiled before she grab the skirt one and started to dress. After she was done, she stared at herself in the mirror and started twirling around while she laughed. She sat on her vanity and started applying her make up and fixing her hair. Her bestfriend Yuffie Kisaragi had told her about the party that was happening at the home of her good friend, Zack Fair, whom she met on an arcade months back. Tifa didn't have a job that day so she agreed, it had been a while after all since she had some fun.

"Are you ready Teef?" Yuffie called over from outside Tifa's room.

"Yes, I'll be out in a minute!"

"Okay!"

Tifa was born in a small countryside village called Nibelheim, but when she was seven, her mother died and her father decided to move to another place in order to forget the painful memory, so she had been living in Wutai for the rest of her childhood, this is where she met Yuffie, who is actually a royalty in terms of wealth and their prominent last name in the country. They were schoolmates in elementary and growing up, they both decided that they would go to Midgar University for college, so after they have graduated high school and got accepted to their dream University, they both moved to Midgar and lived together, their freshmen year will be starting in a few days and their are both pretty excited about it. Tifa took one last look at herself before she smiled and stood up to go out the door. Yuffie was standing outside and she started eyeing her bestfriend from head to toe. Yuffie was looking really pretty, her short brown hair was down but a black bonnet with a pair of cat ears was over it, she wore a beige colored long sleeve shirt that was kind of unfitting and some black, pleaded skirt under it, she also wore some knee high black socks and some brown, flat, ankle boots. She looked really cute which made Tifa giggle.

"Not bad pancake, you'll make every guy crazy tonight." Yuffie said with a sinister grin that made Tifa uneasy.

"Wha-"

"Now come on, we're going to be late!" Yuffie grabbed Tifa and started dragging her away.


Tifa looked out from the window of the taxi while she rested her chin on her palm, she had been missing her father a lot, but she knows that he's happy and is accompanied by Yuffie's father, who had offered that Tifa's dad should live in the Kisaragi mansion since Tifa will be going away, her father was hesitant about it but Tifa insisted, she knows how lonely he would be, for her mother gone and her away as well, he agreed in the end and Tifa was relieved about that. Like her and Yuffie, their fathers are also the best of friends and always inseparable.

"We're here!" Yuffie suddenly piped that made Tifa's elbows slide down from the window ledge and her forehead to bump into the glass window, she didn't realized that she had fallen asleep. Yuffie cackled at her friend's antics. Tifa opened the door and looked up in awe at how big the house was, calling it a house was an understatement.

"That's a huge ass mansion..." She said quietly with her mouth open. Yuffie chuckled and started dragging to towards the lively and noisy house.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to Zack! He's been wanting to meet you since forever." Yuffie said with a huge grin on her face.

"He does?"

"Yeah, I told him how pretty and sultry my bestfriend was and he couldn't wait to meet you." Tifa's eyes widened and yanked her arm away from Yuffie's grip.

"What?! Why would you say that?!" She hissed at the brunette but she was being dragged again, once they made their entry on the house, everyone's heads turned to their direction but more hungry eyes stared at Tifa which made her uncomfortable.

"Look! There he is!" Yuffie started waving her arm in the air with a big smile on her face. Tifa looked over at the direction where she was waving at and her eyes widened at what she saw.

A very good looking guy with black spikey hair with some bangs framing his face was approaching them with a handsome smile on his face. Tifa blush when she realized that his eyes were for her and for her only.

"Yuffie!" He finally acknowledge his friend after a while with a hug. "Welcome to my home." Then he looked at Tifa with the same handsome smile. "And you must be Tifa?" He asked. Tifa blushed then looked down.

"Y-Yeah... Hi..." Tifa stuttered while she tucked some hair strand over her ear. "I'm Tifa... Nice to meet you Zack." She said with sheepish smile. Zack held out his hand and she took it hesitantly, they shook and Zack held unto her hand more than necessary.

"Gosh... You are really beautiful..." He said which had the brunette blushing furiously. Yuffie grinned big while she stared at the two.

"Zack!" Someone called the host over which made him let go of Tifa's hand and look over his shoulder, he looked back at the brunette again and smiled.

"I'll be going but I'll see you guys later okay? Have fun alright?" He said then winked at Yuffie.

"Alright, later Zack." She said then looked over at Tifa who was still blushing like mad. "So...?" She asked which woke up Tifa from her daze.

"W-What?"

"How was he?"

"Ummm... He... He's very... handsome..."

"Yes he is, and he likes you a lot, too!"

"You think?"

"Yes, I know so, but before we talk about that, let's grab some drinks alright?" Yuffie started dragging Tifa away but she bumped into a guy on the way and it made his drink spill all over his shirt, he looked down on himself while he waved his hands to removed the liquid. Tifa gasped.

"Oh...! I'm so sorry! I-" But her world stopped when she looked up and saw the most beautiful man she had laid eyes on. She stared in awe at how blond his spikey hair was, how pale and smooth the skin on his face was and what caught her breath was how blue his eyes were, they were the most brilliant blue and they seemed to have a glow in them. He cleared his throat after a while which made her shake her head hastily to clear it.

"Oh! I'm sorry! please let me help you clean this up!" She exclaimed nervously. "Yuffie, just wait a minute okay?" She told her bestfriend who was wiggling her eyebrows at her, Tifa sneered at Yuffie before she started dragging away the handsome blond into a free room with a bathroom, they made their way upstairs and found a room that she was looking for, luckily it was empty so she hurriedly pulled the blond inside and locked the door, she smiled when she found a steamer iron on the side. She faced the handsome blond and she blushed when she realized what she had done and what made her uneasy was how he hadn't said a word since their encounter. He was sitting on the bed, never taking his eyes off her.

"Ummm.. Can I... have your shirt so I can get it fixed, ummm..."

"Nothing's broken." He finally said and how his voice sounded sent shivers down Tifa's spine.

"Yeah... I know. Well, I just need to wash it up and there's a steamer there and-" But she didn't have to continue when he started removing his light blue dress shirt with her there. She shrieked then hastily turned around, the blond looked up at her and chuckled at her reaction.

"Here." He said and when she turned around again to grab the shirt, she forgot how to breath again when she saw how muscular and perfectly sculpted his torso was and it was making her body temperature rise to a more than normal amount. She blushed then looked down and started going towards the bathroom. The blonde smirked while he followed her with his eyes and smiled brightly when she slammed the door shut behind her. Tifa was breathing heavily from behind the door while she clutched the shirt to her chest. She looked down at it and smiled, she started sniffing it and the scent was a mixture of his perfume and beer. She went over to the sink and got to work.

Tifa was hovering the steam iron at the shirt and smiled brightly when she was done. She hurriedly hanged the iron at the rack and turned it off, she turned around to find the blond lying on the bed with his arms resting below his head. She yelped then threw the shirt in the air, completely wasting her hard work, he looked at her with a blank expression then he slowly sat with eyebrows raised.

"My shirt." He said while he stretched his hand to her, asking her to hand it over, she frantically grabbed it from the floor and threw it at his direction. He smirked when he caught it then stood up to put it on. Tifa was disappointed when he started covering his incredible physique away from her hungry eyes. When he was done, he started approaching the brunette who was backing away from him at the same time. He smirked when he had finally pinned her to a wall, he placed his hand beside her head and stared intently on her eyes. She gulped loudly which made him chuckle and Tifa blushed at how handsome he looked when he did that.

"Wait here..." He whispered in a husky voice which made her eyes widen and he suddenly pushed himself from the wall then started to walk away. He held the door knob but looked at her again before opening the door then he was gone. Tifa started sliding down the wall, she released the breath that she was holding while she clutched her chest. Her heart was hammering wildly and she could still see those luminescent blue eyes that had been staring into her soul just seconds ago.

She indeed waited and he had returned after a while with some drinks. She stood up and grabbed the drinks that he was handing to her. He sat down on the bed and she did the same. He stared at her for a while before he started talking.

"What's your name?" Just the way he asks that in a low voice was making her crazy. She cleared her throat.

"T-Tifa... Lockhart." She said then took a sip at her drink. He gave her a wry smile then took a drink on his own.

"That's a pretty name." He said. "I'm Cloud. Cloud Strife." He said quietly which made her look up at him. She nodded.

"Okay... Nice to meet you... Cloud." She said with a smile, he smiled back, it was a small smile, but he looked really handsome when he did that.

"Nice to meet you, too..." He said in an almost whisper that made Tifa blush.

They talked for a while, Cloud kept asking about Tifa's life and how she ended up in Midgar, Tifa was more than happy to share her life experience, Yuffie included, but the blond never mentioned anything about himself, when Tifa would ask a question, he would change the subject and ask her back about her instead. Tifa decided to let it go, she figured that maybe he didn't want to about what was happening in his life.

After a couple of more drinks and a few more laughs, they were both completely drunk. They suddenly found their faces too close to one another, and the next thing they knew, Tifa's lips was on Clouds and he was pushing her down on the bed they were occupying.