If nothing else, Tifa hoped for a fun (paid) evening out. Tonight's blind date came courtesy of a monthly column in a Midgar newspaper. Submit your details and maybe get sent, with a voucher, to an Upper Plate restaurant to meet someone. The cost? Report back about how it all went. First names only but the resulting article would include a picture of the couple. Separate images thankfully - this could all go so wrong.
Finding a date in the slums remained troublesome with running the Seventh Heaven, plotting for Avalanche, and, taking her turn to babysit Marlene. And not including the difficulty of finding someone, at bare minimum, attractive; interesting; of the right gender. Calm. Too excited and too nervous; here at the restaurant a good ten minutes early. Admittedly she could still back out, but what if it went well? Not great odds, but the curiosity stopped her running for the door. Still some time-
"Excuse me. Are you Tifa?" A smiling woman had approached from the back of the restaurant. Far too late to flee now; her date had found her.
"Yes. So you're Aeris?"
The woman nodded. "Sorry, I got here early." Aeris took a seat at the bar and Tifa forced her gaze back to her drink. Some fashionable thing a number of other people drank here; Tifa trying to look like she belonged here. Nice enough but pricey. "Haven't done a paid blind date before. And never anywhere quite like this."
"Me either." First impressions of Aeris; cute, chatty and also early. "Would you like a drink?"
Aeris glanced at Tifa's glass. "Please." Tifa signaled the barman and Aeris requested whatever Tifa had. "Cheers," she added and clinked their glasses together. Aeris unexpectedly also lived in the slums; far more at home up here than Tifa felt. The fact they both read the same paper formed another decent starting point. Aeris's reasons for entering into the arrangement did not ring true, but neither did Tifa's. Nothing to worry about.
Three drinks later and Aeris reckoned they should eat something, if for no other reason than to absorb the alcohol. She flouted near every table manner and talked with her mouth full, ignoring some pointed looks from other diners. Tifa told Aeris about the cat she used to have back in Nibelheim, but skirted around why she left; Aeris sold flowers but she wound up ranting about the state of sector five under Shinra rule.
Both had extensive reading lists and recommendations - many pulled from the review section of the paper. Some overlap (more topics of conversation), but individually they both also owned a pleasing number of volumes interesting to the other. "You can borrow some if you'd like," Aeris said, opening the wine.
"Ditto," Tifa replied. From starters to mains to dessert and barely a lull in the conversation. A good amount of wine remained, but the date desperately needed prolonging. With dessert finished Tifa excused herself from the table. And tripped. Martial arts training kicked in to save her from the worst of her resulting gracelessness, but the alcohol dulled her reflexes. She waved Aeris back to the table and limped to the rear of the restaurant.
A few mistypes on the pay-phone and she managed to dial the Seventh Heaven, ignoring the twinges in her hip. Jessie answered and asked about the date. "Amazingly," Tifa said, her face warm, pain all but forgotten.
"A good match then?"
"Totally." Aeris sipped her wine; she caught Tifa's gaze and waved to her. "She is really, really, really great." Tifa waved back and bit her lip. "Can you take care of things for a bit longer?" The original expectation: Tifa returning, sober, by ten at the latest.
Jessie cackled. "So it's going well?"
"Yes. But I can-"
"Don't be silly! I can hold the fort, go have fun!"
Aeris had procured another bottle of wine by the time Tifa returned from the bathroom. She smiled and headed to the bathroom – also pausing to use the pay-phone on the way. Letting someone know of a late return home? The knowledge her date also wanted to extend the evening thrilled her. Tifa caught Aeris's gaze when she emerged from the bathroom; both stared into the other's eyes- And Aeris walked straight into a partition, rebounding off the glass. She recovered and hurried back to her seat, blaming the alcohol. She forgave it almost immediately, or at least did not let anything deter her from draining the remainder of her glass.
"I think we should move on." Aeris upended the bottle and poured the last dribble of wine into Tifa's glass. "If I've worked it out right, we've hit the total for the voucher. And while we could stay here-" Another thrill at the casual way she referenced the two of them. "-the prices are outrageous."
"Where would we go?" Same thrill again. We.
Aeris grinned. "We'll find somewhere else. With cheaper drinks. Hey, there's Goblin's Bar in Sector Eight. And it's near a station."
Tifa finished her wine and together they took a slightly wobbly walk outside, the pain in Tifa's hip almost gone. The cold air encouraged a wonderfully warm Aeris to huddle closer. They kissed and kissed and kissed. Aeris broke away first. "You are amazing-" Tifa pressed their lips together and cut her off. "-but there's-" Another kiss. "-more wine to be had!" Aeris stared into her eyes and kissed Tifa again.
Tifa pulled away. "Okay. More wine!" Others on the street glanced around at the outburst, but Tifa and Aeris ignored them. They got nowhere fast, every pause a chance for another kiss, another embrace. Their meandering route took them out of Sector Two and into Sector Three; the domain of the rich and the powerful. Big houses, fancy cars, agonizingly maintained gardens famed for existing at appalling cost. Aeris seemed to take great exception to these.
They turned a corner before Tifa could query why she took such offence and almost ran into the back of another couple. "…think it's this one," one of them said pointing to a house. The distant roar of music sounded from the building in question, people inside dancing. Aeris steered Tifa towards it.
Slight nervousness, but Aeris grinned, utterly confident. They pushed into the party behind the other couple, smiling and nodding at strangers, soon unnoticed in the crowd. Their hands remained locked together and they sought out the kitchen. Not Tifa's kind of party but neither did it seem somewhere Aeris would frequent - except for the wine. A distinct other feel to the party-goers; hair styled a little too much, clothing too fancy or too bluntly plain. All upper class types and probably unforgiving of two slum-dwelling party-crashers. If anyone caught them of course.
A corner a little out of the way allowed for more kissing. So hard to stop now, Aeris so good against her lips. And the more they kissed, the more impossible resisting the growing intensity of their actions it became. Tifa forced herself to bite back moans when Aeris nipped at her neck, one of hands brushing a bit too intimately close. She leapt at a breathy suggestion they explore the house. For anthropological interest of course. And perhaps to see what the bedrooms of the rich looked like. All totally innocent.
Easier to hear upstairs and away from the music; more so when they pushed open the nearest unlocked, non-bathroom door. Nothing more than a quick glimpse of a bedroom illuminated by the hall light. Enough to navigate to the bed, Tifa sitting down heavily, Aeris fumbling with the lock. More kissing and wandering hands without a need for public decency. Aeris knelt between Tifa's legs and traced glyphs across her thighs with her fingertips.
Aeris slid Tifa's underwear off and Tifa lost herself in pleasure. She tangled her fingers in Aeris's hair and begged her not to stop. The heavy thump of knocking and demands for the identity of the room's occupants came frustratingly before Tifa could return Aeris's favour. Both women agreed to beat a hasty and immediate retreat. No way out through the party; fortunately the house had a fire escape. Hard not to giggle when they scrambled down to ground level, linking hands again to escape; headed for the station and freedom.
"Would you like to go out again?" Aeris asked, walking Tifa to the platform edge, the Sector Seven train here far too soon.
"Yes. How about next week. If there's a good night?"
"Any night would be perfect. We can arrange it later." Aeris pulled a pen from her bag and scrawled her phone number on Tifa's hand. "Call me whenever you like." Not enough time to give Aeris her number; something to sort later. One more kiss in the doorway and Aeris waved from the platform. A wonderful date and such a wonderful girlfriend. Her girlfriend. Spreading warmth in her chest. Tifa read and re-read the phone number, committing it to memory, not trusting the ink to stay on her skin. Aeris's phone number.
An absurdly good blind date. She had met someone with whom she had clicked with so well and so fast. So much fun. So good to kiss. Who had gotten intimate with her so quickly. The bed, Aeris's lips- Wait. She had forgotten her underwear. Aeris had slid them off and dropped them- Where? On the floor? Damning evidence of their little transgression. Tifa's cheeks warmed. No matter. All worth it; next week could not come soon enough.