Same AU as A Gift for the Flower Girl.

"Hey, Tifa?"

The girl in question turned away from her piano, focusing on the source of the voice. Her longtime friend and neighbor, Cloud Strife, sat on her bed, previously listening to her practice. She eyed the spiky-haired blond curiously, wondering why he had interrupted her. He didn't do so very often.

"What's up?" she asked, turning on the bench to face him fully.

The boy picked at his sleeve absently, not making eye contact with Tifa. The young martial artist rolled her eyes at his disinterested act, the recently-developed affectation annoying her. She started debating whether to slap him in the head to get him to spit out whatever he wanted to say, when he finally spoke up.

"Aeris is going to be back in town soon, right?"

Tifa blinked in surprise, not expecting him to mention the travelling flower seller. How did he know about that?

"Uh, yeah," she replied, "She'll be here this afternoon, actually. Why?"

In response, the boy pulled an envelope out of his pocket and held it out to her.

"Could I ask you to give this to her for me? It's pretty important."

The fighter accepted the envelope and examined it, turning it over in her hands. There was nothing remarkable about it. Nothing was written on it except, "Aeris," across the front.

"What is it?" the confused girl asked, "And why can't you give it to her yourself?"

"It's a list," Cloud explained, his disinterested persona slipping, "I had talked to her on the phone about getting a bunch of flowers for my mom's birthday. She told me to make a list of what I needed, so I did. And I can't give it to her, because I have to go make other arrangements for Mom's gifts and cake and everything. I'd have started earlier, but I couldn't miss your piano practice. It's our tradition."

Tifa blinked again, surprised at the unusually thorough explanation. Since he had started acting "cool," Cloud generally didn't speak more than one or two sentences at a time. Though I suppose if there's any reason he'd want to break his stupid act, it would be his mom…

Breaking from her thoughts, the fighter nodded slightly. "I can do it, I guess," she announced, as if it would be some great chore to hand over the envelope. Cloud rolled his eyes at her.

"Yeah, thanks," he drawled, "Just make sure to keep it in your pants long enough to actually give her the note."

Tifa's face lit up at the comment, the redness in her cheeks rivaling that in her eyes. She started spluttering incoherently as her friend watched with amusement. As he started to laugh, she jumped up from the piano bench and knocked him off the bed.

"You shut up!" she demanded, pulling a pillow from the bed to beat him with, "You don't know what you're talking about!"

"The whole town knows what I'm talking about!" the boy retorted from behind his crossed arms, protecting his head and face from the brawler's pillowy wrath, "Your crush on her has been getting more and more obvious since you gave her that flower two months ago!"

Abruptly, the assault stopped. Cloud cautiously spread his arms to check on his friend, and quickly decided he probably shouldn't have. Tifa stood over him, glaring, her face so red he could actually see waves of heat emanating from it.

"Uh, Tifa?" he asked nervously.

She responded by lunging down at him and grabbing fistfuls of his shirt. He squealed as she hauled him up, wrapping him around her shoulders like a squirming shawl. His protests and demands to be put down went ignored as she carried him out of her room and down the stairs, her mother laughing as they passed her in the dining room. As they came to the front door, Tifa opened it with one hand before grabbing her captive with both.

Not wanting to actually harm her friend, Tifa swung him off her shoulders and rolled him out the door like a bowling ball, instead of hurling him like a rock. "Go do your errands, jerk!" she yelled after him.

Rising dizzily to his feet after three complete head-over-heels rotations, Cloud looked back to the embarrassed girl.

"What about the note?" he asked, "I still need you to deliver it." He looked down to his sock-clad feet. "And my boots are still in your house."

He barely looked up in time to dodge the first boot, but the movement placed him right in the path of the other. It bounced off his forehead as the enraged brawler replied.

"Take your stupid boots and go do whatever you need to do!" she shouted, "And don't worry about the stupid list. I like your mom; I'm not going to screw up her birthday just because you're an ass. I'll give Aeris the message." She crossed her arms. "Now get out of here!"

Cloud flinched when she slammed the door, then set about putting his boots on. He made sure to keep the satisfied smile off his face until he had actually turned away from the house. His plan had worked perfectly (except for the part where he got tossed out like a bag of garbage), so now all he had to do was wait for Tifa to hand over that letter. He could deliver the actual list of flowers to Aeris later.

Cloud is devious, though he clearly hasn't managed to plan for everything. This chapter is shorter than I would like, but considering this whole story was originally intended to be a one-shot, I'll allow it.