Silly Conversation

Photos are fun to look at. Especially so when you have a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and are sitting on the sofa and it's raining heavily outside...Mmm, delightful.

Tifa Lockheart was doing just that. A cup of hot chocolate? Check. A rainy day? Check.

PERFECT...

She flipped through photos of her, Cloud, Seventh Heaven, Marlene and Denzel...

Just enjoying the memories... remembering happy times. When Denzel was 8 and Marlene was 7... When she had unrequited love for a certain blond guy... Then she realized something, said blond guy hardly smiled.

She flipped through the whole photo album again, just to make sure... No smile, smile, no smile, no smile, smile, no smile, no smile, no smile, no smile... Oh, boy...she was right. It felt wrong to be right in this matter. She knew Cloud's smile was rare, but she hadn't realized it was this rare!

Then the door opened and in strode a wet-puppy-looking blond. Tifa stared at him.

He looked sheepishly at her. What did I do wrong this time? Tifa had the look of a scientist, albeit the hot chocolate....

"What?" he asked her.

"You hardly smile," she stated matter of factly, "HARDLY"

He was extremely tempted to say: "So?" but he decided not to. An unstable Tifa was not a good person to annoy. He'd just let her rant...

3...2...1...go...

"Cloud, you have one of the most beautiful smiles I've ever seen and yet you don't smile..."

He'd wait this out...

"I mean, I was looking through all the photo albums and it's like your smile costs 1000 gil everytime you do it."

Oh, this was probably going to lead to another one of those ridiculous conversations he had with her when she'd been thinking too long.

Ridiculous but fun conversations.

"Can't you just smile a little bit more?"

He gave her an amused look that said, "Are you kidding?"

She glared back at him, "Cloud, I'm serious!!!"

He raised his eyebrows.

"Oooh! FINE!"

Yep, ridiculous AND fun...

"You're not as innocent as you act, you know?"

"And you are innocent?"

"Finally, he speaks with his mouth..."

"Finally, she calms down..."

"CLOUD!!!"

"Teef."

"Cloud Strife!

"Tifa Lockheart."

"You're hopeless!"

"You're hopeful..."

"That's it! I'm wasting my time!"

"Well, I'm having fun."

"Chocobo hair."

"Tomboy."

"Goodbye!"

"Hello."

Tifa closed her eyes in exasperation.

Cloud went up to her and slowly wound his hands around her waist. She pinched his hand.

"You're wet. Don't hug me..."

"Your clothes are all made of leather. You won't get wet."

"No. I'll drip..."

He smiled in response and pulled her closer.

"See! You have such a nice smile and you hardly show it off..."

"But I thought it was rude to boast."

"Your smile can brighten up anyone's day."

"Yeah, and bring fangirls running to the Seventh Heaven simultaneously making a certain bar maiden grumpy resulting in me being thrashed thoroughly when I get home."

She yanked hard on one of his blond spikes.

"Someone's touchy..."

The touchy 'someone' promptly buried her head in his neck.

"I thought you said I was wet."

"Enough silly conversation already, Cloud..."

"Who started with the rant?"

"Cloud."

He grinned at her cockiness before hoisting her up and throwing her unceremoniously on his shoulder before heading for the stairs.

"What are you doing?"

"Bringing you upstairs."

"I started this conversation with the aim of convincing you to smile more... Unfortunately a certain someone turned it into a silly conversation... PUT ME DOWN!"

"Let's finish this upstairs."

"Fine...but I would prefer to walk upstairs..."

"Unfortunately I enjoy carrying you upstairs.."

Tifa was inwardly cursing his strength. It was bad enough that the dumb blonde had intrigued and aroused her attention on the subject of the rarity of his smiles. He had to go and make it worse by turning the conversation she was trying to make, into a silly conversation. And then to top it all off, he imposes upon her dignity by carrying her as he would carry a sack around. Honestly!

She sighs to herself... so this is Cloud Strife... She looked up at him and caught his smiling eyes. She glared.

He brought her to their twin beds and put her down there.

"Had fun?"

He grinned in response, "Oh, yeah. Lots."

"Can we finish the conversation now?"

"Sure."

"Without any diversions or silly moments?"

"Maybe..."

'Maybe' was the best answer she could get at that moment. When Cloud felt playful, you could never be sure when he might do something weird...

"I'll take my chances..."

"Alright then."

"So...tell me. Why don't you smile?"

"Like I said before... It brings tons of girls in..."

"But not the one you want..."

"The one I want has already been captivated by it."

"Oh really...?"

He lay down beside her, "The one I want seems to mind too much that I don't smile..."

"I can understand her feelings... the one guy who has the nicest smile on the planet, won't smile. The poor girl doesn't have enough photos of his smile too be satisfied..."

"Is that the problem...?"

"Maybe..."

"Teef..."

"Hey, who started the silly conversation in the first place?"

"If memory serves, it was a raven-haired girl..."

She poked him.

"Well, your topic was silly..."

Poke.

"Alright...alright...I'll smile more... There. Happy?"

"Hmm..."

"Besides..." she felt his arm wind around her waist and his chocobo feather-like hair on the skin of her neck.

"Yes?"

"I don't care who smiles more or less... and I don't want to know, but what I do care about and do want to know... is whether-"

A shout came from downstairs, "Cloud!!!"

She closed her eyes, that girl got louder and louder every single day.

She heard him sigh too, and opened her eyes just in time to catch a glimpse of his blond spikes bobbing up and down like the waves of the ocean. It was an amusing sight to behold.

"May I be excused for a second?"

She smirks at him. He simply cannot find the heart to refuse their little jewel...and neither can she. She nods.

He goes out the door, "Ask Denzel!"

Then he comes back in, shaking his head as he does so.

"So?"

"I told her to ask Den-"

"But you haven't even heard my question yet!!!"

She looks up at him, eyebrows raised, "You didn't hear her question?"

And he answers lamely... "I forgot."

"Cloud!"

He is quick in removing himself from her presence, before she can get that well known punch packed into his face.

She watches him tread quietly out the door again.

"Ok... what is it?"

"Eerm... where do you keep the screwdrivers?"

His quiet sigh is still audible to her ears, "Ask Denzel."

She giggles quietly as he treads back into the room.

"So?"

"I told her to as-"

"No, not that part..."

"Huh?"

"You were saying... you wanted to know...?"

"Oh... well, what I do want to know is whether you're still into rainbow chip cookies or is it chocolate chip now?"

"Cloud!"

"Ok...ok...what I really want to know is whether you're willing to marry me."

He paused, seemingly waiting for her reaction.

She didn't plan on giving him one.

"Continue."

He buried his head in her hair. She could distinctly feel the sudden change of temperature on his cheeks.

"I'm sorry I didn't prepare any other speeches."

"Your proposal's a one-liner."

She could feel him freeze and tense up, like a deer caught in head-lights.

"And it was one of the best one-liners I've ever heard..."

"And...?"

She decided to stop teasing him for that silly conversation, "Yes, I would very much like to."

When he came out of her hiding place, he was practically grinning.

But of course, she knew that all good things don't last forever.

And so in fear of him retreating to his habit of rare-smiling again and to keep her eyes in good supply of his smiles in the years to come... Tifa employed the help of the wedding guests who attended.

And on that fear- err... I mean happy day, Cloud found himself literally assaulted by flashbombs under the disguise of the object called 'camera's.

Ends