Heya! Well this here is my very first fanfiction - just to let you know - and since it's my first any criticism is taken into account. The idea and plotline is quite typical I would say but I just couldn't get it out of my head so I had to do something about and thus this fanfic was born! I'm not really great at writing stories and so I really hope that I my English and grammar are of my best abilities on here. And because I'm such an amateur then I'm guessing no-one will appreciate this story very much and therefore I only wrote two chapters so far, both published, so that my *ahem* (imaginary) readers *ahem* will be able to see if this story is going anywhere. Which I hope it does. So anywaaaaays - here's the first chapter with our beloved hero Zack and our crazy-hot fighter Tifa! - Z
- Welcome to the Slums -
The air here was dirty. Thick with pollution, to the point where you could almost gag and choke. The alleys were infested with rodents, and roamed by strays - both the homeless and the dogs - but you couldn't really tell the difference between the two. The buildings that stood in what seemed like an endless maze of alleyways and streets didn't look too good either, as each one looked like they would fall apart anytime soon. To think that there's 8 sectors of slums under the plate… Tifa thought, squinting at a particular building with bright yellow neon lights which illuminated a large section of the street she was walking by.
The Honey Bee Inn… The name and the posters gave what the place was used for straight away. Great, the slums were filled with prostitutes too. Not that there was anything wrong with prostitutes - who knows they might be stuck in some financial crisis with nowhere else to turn to - but the thought of offering yourself to perverse men as your job made Tifa shudder. Her eyes avoided the obscene posters that were peeling off the walls and just continued to stare at the neon sign above her, immersed in her own self-debate.
It was a worth a shot to get a job here. All the other bars and shops didn't accept anymore employees, probably 'cause they had no money left for their own families. And it's not like she wanted to work to give the desperate souls of desperate men what they desperately want, but she could totally work as a receptionist or at the bar - if they even have one. Suddenly, she was filled with doubt and worries that this may be her only chance left. She tried hard to remember how she got here in the Midgar slums. For what seemed like weeks from now, Tifa woke up at an alleyway, dumped in a pile of trash. And she couldn't remember how she got there and why. She felt like a baby, cold and helpless, no-one even taking a glance at her.
With a ragged sigh, Tifa looked down at the puddle beneath her boots and noticed her reflection, broken by the ripples that were created by the movement of her feet. God, she looked like a mess, and she really needed a place to eat and stay. She doesn't want to be sleeping rough tonight. Again.
It must be almost evening now, feeling the cold seeping in through her fingertips. You couldn't really tell the time of day under the plates, the sun was always blocked from the plates above, making everyone here seem so pale as they lived in an eternal night - even without the moon. As she rubbed and clasped her hands together to give some warmth to them, she took small and hesitant steps towards the entrance of the Honey Bee Inn.
•~~••~~•
A hypocrite. That's what she is, and she hated herself for it.
"Looking good there Tyla!" She felt utterly uncomfortable and exposed as a tall yet plump man who wore a loose collared t-shirt with a matching annoyingly sequined purple suit, who claimed to be the owner of this damned brothel, didn't even stop himself from taking her appearance in. He disgustingly winked at her as his eyes wandered up and down her body. Don Corneo was his name, and Tifa just wished she was given the chance to punch his face and his ego one of these days.
Her body stayed rigid as she folded her arms over her chest, suddenly feeling the burden of it. "It's Tifa." She muttered under her breath. The clothes she was wearing shouldn't be called 'clothes' anymore. She could be mistaken for a nudist. Or worse… a stripper, what with the ultra short crop top with bee stripes and the ultra short, short shorts along with the matching bee patterns. And what's with the stupid bumblebee antennas? Giving herself a mental slap, it ultimately dawned on Tifa that that was what she was exactly going to be for the night. Up until she had enough Gil to get herself up and going - not knowing how long exactly it will take for her to stay. Technically, she didn't take up the job of being a stripper, but a lap-dancer whilst the men cheered to their drinks and whatever men talk about. There's a difference… right?
"Yeah, yeah whatever. Tyla sounds a lot sexier. Just the way our guests like it." Don Corneo motioned with two fingers for her to come over, with a small essence of a delighted smirk playing across his face. He must've noticed her grumbling about the the flimsy pieces of cloth that she wore as he immediately spoke up and said, "Hey - we made a deal remember? If you wanna leave with your Gil right away then you gotta stop worrying about the uniform."
She gave a slightly irritated look while the Don had his back to her as he faced a large door, and finally breathed out, "All right. 5,000 Gil - as you promised."
The Don gave a short but hearty laugh. "I like you! The girl's got guts! Yeah - I'm gonna get profit from you. Tell you what - if I see the men swooning and asking for more from you I'll make it into 10,000."
Tifa's eyes widened momentarily, but then covered up her small moment of shock by raising a single eyebrow at him. 10,000 was more than enough - she wasn't that greedy… But he offered… and she really needed a place to stay...
Let's not regret this Tifa. "Deal." she finally said, a glint of determination and self-respect (which was ironic in some way), shown in her wine eyes.
The Don made a sound of triumph from his throat, turning his head over his shoulder to give her a smug smile. "Well then." He gave the doors in front of him a push, opening it so wide so quickly that there was sudden rush of air blowing past her, accompanied with the blaring of loud techno music filling her ears, which had almost broke her eardrums. There was too much strobe lighting everywhere amongst the deep blue darkness that lit up the room, making it look quite painful and nauseating to look at. There were other women too - dressed in the official and exposed uniform of the Honey Bee, sitting on mens laps, laughing, having a drink, seducing, grinding up and down a pole in the middle of the room on an elevated circular stage, serving drinks, kissing men, kissing their workmates... And the sight made Tifa sick to the stomach. She never imagined herself to be in this type of situation and she didn't want to imagine what her friends and family back home would think if they found out she did this. Filled with regret and second thoughts, she was pondering upon the thought of sprinting her way out of the Honey Bee Inn, not realising that The Don touched her back and gave her a small push as he tried to introduce her to someone.
"Tyla. Elena. Elena. Tyla." The Don grumbled gesturing to both of them as he introduced them both for eachother.
Elena was a really pretty girl, who was wearing the bumblebee uniform too. Tifa studied her for a quick second and noticed how she had quite an awesome pale blonde bobcut, with one side having a longer fringe than the other. But she also noticed how Elena seemed... young... and mostly...out of place. Tifa didn't like to judge - but she seemed the woman in front of her seemed too formal for someone like her to work around here, as she held out her hand for Tifa to shake. One last thing that Tifa noticed was that Elena's eyes gave the inpression that she was carefully assesing her too.
"Hi. It's Tifa by the way - not Tyla." She gave Elena an acknowledging smile as she gently shook her hand. The blonde-haired girl in front of her only returned a tight smile, as if she didn't really care about meeting Tifa.
"Whatever - " The Don mused. "- but you girls need to get your asses moving if you both want your Gil!" Tifa moved past Elena to step inside the chaotic room and disturbing room. Feeling a sudden tight grip on her arm making her step back, she turned to look at The Don, seeing a rather frightening expression on his round face. "You want your 10 grand?" Tifa gave a single nod. "Then better make me proud." His grip finally let go of her arm, turning on his heels to leave through the doors they just came from.
Tifa's eyes followed his exit, holding in the swelling frustration inside her. She almost didn't notice Elena was still standing there, continuously studying Tifa as if the girl knew her from somewhere. Because she sure as hell doesn't remember a face like Elena's in her memories. Well... what's left of them anyway.
"So Elena, why don't you show me around?" Tifa began feeling kind of awkward in the moment. She just had no idea what to do. Was she just supposed to bombard a group of men sitting in separate booths and begin to... to what? Talk? Dance in front of them like a lunatic? Teach them a lesson that they had nothing else to do in their lives and so they're just feeding their never-ending satisfied needs in this hole? Which was kind of ironic 'cause she ended up here too.
"This is all there is to see really. All you gotta do is please them - that's what the boss says anyways." Elena moved to Tifa's side and brought her face close to Tifa's ear. "See that guy over there?" Tifa noticed that Elena had a lowly raised finger to a booth close to the right-side of the room. There were quite a few guys in that booth, and didn't really know who Elena was directly pointing at. "The guy with the spiky dark hair and a scar on his jaw." Tifa finally realised who the girl was talking about, easily spotting the unruly spiky hair and a boyishly handsome face - ignoring the fact that Elena saw a scar and Tifa didn't.
"What about him?" Tifa whispered loudly, though she had no idea why she had to, since her voice probably couldn't be heard all the way from that guy's place.
"You should go to him. He's got his eyes all over you - and maybe he could help you get your 10,000 Gil." Tifa whipped her head to face Elena, only seeing a serious look planted on her face.
"Can't you come with me then? I'm pretty new to this sorta thing - and I'm only planning to do it for tonight anyway - at least 'til I get my Gil." She tried to plead as she focused on Elena, frightened to face the group of men alone. It's not that she wouldn't be able to handle them if things escalated quickly - but she doesn't usually flirt. Or rather - intentionally flirt to get what she wanted. And what would they talk about anyway? Would they enjoy learning about the mountains of Nibelheim where she grew up?
"Sorry Tifa, I just got called in by someone else before you came." and with that, Elena turned on her heels, giving her a half-hearted wave as she began walking on the opposite direction. "I'll see ya later, okay?" Tifa heard her calling out through the music and the rest of the noise in the room.
She was about to give a reply, but her attention was caught by a sudden burst of laughter by the booth of men that Elena had just pointed out. Tifa turned her head slowly back to them, looking as if she was scanning the whole club so that she didn't look startled by their laughter - but got startled anyway by the boyishly handsome man with the dark spiky hair who Elena claimed was 'checking Tifa out', and who since God knows when and how, was suddenly by her side giving her a toothy and slightly drunk grin as he rubbed the back of his neck. She let in a sharp inhale by her shock, as she fully turned to face the man in front of her. Sure enough he had a scar on his jaw. But it was too faint to see through the blue lighting, figuring that Elena probably had her carrots as a child seeing how she could notice it from afar. What startled her the most though was that she noticed despite the deep blue light that reflected on his face that he had these sort of... violet/blue eyes that seemed to glow with hints of green. Upon seeing the strangely coloured eyes, Tifa suddenly had a dejà vu moment as they seemed so painstakingly... familiar...
"Hey," he began to speak slowly and quite awkwardly "Sorry if I - uh - freaked you out or anything." his grin slowly faltered into half a smile as he looked down to the ground and back up to her again finding her eyes.
Oh was this guy such a flirt. "No - you didn't. You just startled me that's all." Tifa gave him a warm smile as she unconsciously rested a hand on his arm.
"I feel like I've known you before..." he almost, just almost, inaudibly uttered under a breath. Funny how she thought the same thing. His eyes suddenly unlocked from her own eyes, as they slowly began to descend down her body, Tifa finally realising it was probably some silly pick-up line he uses to get girls to blush like crazy. She didn't know if it was intended for her to hear and so she retracted her resting hand from his arm pulling it to fold her own arms 'protectly' over her chest, leaning on one leg with an amused smile on her face and a slight raise of her eyebrows.
Far ahead from the booth he came from, she heard the harsh and loud whispers of the men he sat with.
"What did he say? Why did she just looked at him like that?"
"Shutup Theo!" hearing a grunt and a rattle of glass bottles "Zack's got eyes on his prize already."
"Why can't she come over here? She looks hot as fu-"
"Just shutup Theo!"
Hmph. Zack's his name? Come to think of it - it does ring a bell...
"Is that what you say to all the girls you flirt with?" she made a noise from the back of her throat to show her amusement.
"If it works, whythehellnot?" Tifa noticed that his words were a bit slurred and quick, his drunk yet toothy grin beginning to re-appear on his face. "And I'd rather use it on a beauty like you -" a hiccup escaped from his mouth "Anyways."
He raised an arm and turned to face the same way she was facing to put an arm round her shoulder. She didn't realise he was holding onto a beer bottle by the neck, and raised it towards his friends at the booth. They gave a series of cheering and whooping as they noticed Tifa wasn't tucked under his arm anymore, but instead his hand was softly gripping on her bare waist. "Ahhhh, they're alla bunch of jerks." he whispered to Tifa with a smile as he looked at them straight ahead.
She looked up at him, and he turned his head to look down at hers. "I'm Zack, by the way." he flashed her yet another one of those boisterous smile, making Tifa think that maybe this guy wasn't so bad. He did look really handsome.
"I'm Tifa." She responded with one of her smiles.
"Tifa." Zack repeated. "Tifa." he said her name yet again, as if he were playing around with it. As if he were familiar with it, but then realised that he was sorta in a drunken state, until he said:
"So Tifa - wanna get a room?"
And then her mind was going in all different directions now as the words came out of him. She felt scared and angry and used - realising that she agreed to be in this situation anyway, then felt really horrible for being such a hypocrite, yet again. Nevertheless, she didn't plan on getting a room with anyone tonight anyway!
No! her head screamed. "Zack I -" she began her eyes going wide and she started to wiggle free from his grip. Interrupted by The Don's gaze who now was in the bar up ahead, he held up both of his hands, fat fingers stretched wide to remind her of the 10,000 Gil they made a deal on.
She stopped herself from protesting anymore by biting her bottom lip and looked up at him and smirked. Very unlike her at all.
"Why the hell not?" and with that - he grinned at her as he started to lead her out of the club and looking down at her he said,
"Come on then, beautiful."
xxx
Tifa had never been alone in a room, dressed up as some promiscuous bumblebee, with a guy before. Anxiety started to creep in because she felt so low... so helpless and hopeless. She didn't like how she's become so desperate for money, and she didn't like how she had to turn to this type of service to earn it. What had happened to her?
She's just glad at the moment that Zack hasn't tried anything yet, but she was still wary of him. He's also a pretty open guy, probably 'cause he was drunk, but he also seemed sorta cheerful when he started to talk about his whole life story, as they walked together to the room.
"So as a kid I grew up in Gongaga, and there wasn't much to do in that place so it got kinda boring -" he fumbled with the key as he unlocked the room "- so when I was around thirteen -" he grunted as he used his force to turn the key that was stuck in the keyhole, "I left, leaving my whole life behind to start a new one." With a push of the door, Zack stood at the side to allow Tifa in the room.
To be honest, she expected worse. Instead, the room didn't look too shabby at all - there was a working light, a quite comfortable looking king-sized bed, and thank God there was a bathroom. That way she wouldn't have to use the communal one.
Zack followed her in, hands on hips as he too looked around. "Not so bad, huh." He then made his way to the bed and simply plonked himself down, his arms resting behind his head whilst he kicked off his boots and stretching out his legs. He gave a sigh of pure contentment and Tifa smiled at him for a moment, but he didn't see 'cause his eyes were closed.
"So why did you leave then?" she asked, not sure where to plonk her tired body down too since Zack had already occupied the bed. And she didn't feel comfortable in sharing it with a man she just met.
Zack opened one eye to look at her. "Don't just stand there Teef, get yourself comfortable 'cause you look pretty beat up." He patted the space on the mattress beside him, as she gave him a look. He simply gave a husky laugh as she walked over and sat close next to him but quite close to edge of the bed. "Beat up in a beautiful way." he teased.
Her heart sank as she saw his smile, feeling at ease and at least a lot more safer than she had been in what seemed like forever. She'll have this moment, for sure.
"Oh yeah!" Zack exclaimed, turning on his front to face her. "I left 'cause I wanted to join SOLDIER. All the Shinra troops that often came by in Gongaga always talked about their dreams of being a 1st class SOLDIER. And soon it just... It became mine too." he said with a hint of sadness. Tifa could tell that he missed his family. Just like her.
She missed Nibelheim. She missed seeing the stars at night - and that all went away when one day she suddenly woke up in the trash. Tifa thought about her own dreams she's been having, dreams where she witnessed these two boys in this sea of green and being forced to watch instead of trying to help them. Before she knows it, she drowns in the sea of green too. And usually that dream frightens her because it's like she could taste the sea of green in her mouth.
But there were better dreams too. Dreams of a boy back in her hometown with incredibly spiky blond hair and how she and that boy went up the water well one night and stayed there to look up at the stars. She could never - would never forget that boy's name.
Cloud. Like a name that belongs to the sky.
"What about you Teef?"
"Huh?" breaking away from her thoughts, Tifa started to like the nickname 'Teef'. It was new, yet somehow very familiar.
"Why did you end up here?" Zack tilted his head to the side, resembling a curious puppy.
Tifa couldn't find any other way to say it, because she wasn't really good at storytelling especially when it comes to her own life. "I needed the Gil." she simply said. "I need to find a place to stay once I'm done with this. And get myself some food... and a shower." Then she looked at Zack noticing that there was a sudden familiarity in his violet eyes and felt like she was so sure she's seen them before - not the first time she felt that throughout the night.
"I knew it!" the man in front of her smiled, and at first Tifa wasn't sure whether or not she should be offended. "You don't seem like a girl from around here. To be honest, you seem like you're more into 'kicking ass' than spending a night with a handsome guy like me."
Tifa gave a hearty laugh for the first time in what seemed like a whole lifetime at Zack's joke. But the joke was true, and Tifa wondered if she was so easy to read. If he had been crude and too dominating then she would have been more than happy to kick his face. Her laughter began to die down and she noticed that the laughter that escaped from her made everything feel... a lot lighter.
"You know you could crash at my place for a while if you haven't got a place to stay - free of charge." he offered, and Tifa held her breath.
She wondered for a moment. "I can't Zack." she whispered, smiling at him sadly as she stared into his violet eyes.
"Why not?" he asked with a wave of his hand. "I'll take care of you. And plus I've got a spare room in my apartment with a decent bed too. Whaddaya say?"
Tifa felt so torn. Never in her life has she felt so desperate, but yet she couldn't accept it. It's way too much. How could he be so open and so trusting to Tifa when they only met a few hours ago? If he were in her shoes, then he probably wouldn't be. And what if she can't trust him? If she couldn't then she'll just end up back to square one again. But there's something that she noticed in him that she couldn't quite touch upon...
"All right. Okay - but I can't stay for long - it'll be too much to ask, let alone offer." she yawned, and rested her head against the headboard.
She heard Zack chuckle as he began his normal way of teasing. "Knew you'd fall for me."
Even with her eyes closed she felt him smiling at her, feeling glad that that she was with Zack. Feeling safe, as if she'd known him and feeling even more glad that Zack didn't even try to do anything more than talk about his life story, leaving her puzzled. Today was the day of 'first times', she realised as she fell into a deep slumber with no nightmares and no dreams and no worries.
