Chat Room
A/N: In this story, Tifa and Cloud do not have kids living with them. Also, to appease all rule abiding readers, I have redone this chapter to make it a conversation format and not a chat/message one. I will remove the other chapters until they are the quality that is demanded.
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Tifa sat alone in her home, in her warm yet lonely bed. A lone light was on, brightening half of her bedroom. Cloud was out late again, and Tifa had learned through the years that no matter how many times you called his cell, Cloud chose to come home when he was good and ready.
She had been feeling lonelier than usual that evening, and had thought staying up in a chat room might help ebb away her longing for interaction. She had found a chat room dedicated to Midgars insomniacs, and thought it wouldn't hurt to try and start a conversation with a fellow night owl. She decided on using an ironic name while on the chat site, she'd go by DoubleDee.
There were names listed on her screen, indicating users who were online and able to chat. She had clicked on the user name FlamboyantFlamer, and started to type a friendly comment.
"Couldn't sleep either?" She patiently waited for the other person to respond
"Can anyone in this city? Seriously, I think there's something in the water." The other commented.
"Either you're paranoid, or you're a comedian." Tifa shook her head at the thought of chatting with a truly paranoid person.
"Not to brag or anything, but people have said I'm pretty damn hilarious." The person responded cockily, making Tifa chuckle.
"I see, so I'm talking to a Midgar comedian? That narrows down the list." Tifa could joke around too, it wasn't like she planned on sharing her life story with this stranger.
"Seriously though, what keeps you up and bored enough to use this chat room?"
"The truth? My beds empty, and it's hard to fall asleep alone. But, it could also be that I watched a scary movie and don't want to fall asleep just yet..."
"Scary movie, huh? I bet. Sounds like you got some serious sleep problems. . ." The person she was chatting to was dead on with that statement.
"What about you? What keeps you up?" Tifa wanted to hear more about them, it felt very odd asking a stranger on the Internet what kept them up at night, but it wasn't as if she had anything better to do.
"I dunno, a little of its loneliness, or I could just say I watched a scary movie too and I'm just not comfortable closing my eyes yet."
"Oh yeah? Was it that scary movie with that puppet that comes to life in it?" She had viewed many horror films, that was only one of the many that came to her. Puppets always bothered her after seeing them come to life.
"That one? I'm not afraid of puppets. Guess again." Guessing movies could be fun, so Tifa played along.
"That clown movie where he's killing all those kids? Now that was some scary crap! I couldn't handle showering with the door closed for weeks, imaging that evil thing coming up through the drain..." Tifa shuttered in her bed at the memory of that terrible clown, she hoped that when she did sleep, old nightmares wouldn't trouble her.
"What if I'm a professional clown? That statement might have really offended me...and no, it wasn't that movie. . . By the way, are you a chick or a dude? Not that you couldn't lie about it, just curious." Should she respond truthfully? Did it really matter if she did?
"Professional clown? Midgar has many types, but I haven't seen one clown in this city. Okay, how about that movie about that family who's house gets possessed? And since I'm confident we're never going to meet in real life, I'll tell you my real gender. I'm a woman. I'm guessing you're a guy...am I right?" Tifa was confident that they'd never meet, she wasn't that type of person.
"That movie wasn't even scary! You're pretty confident bout that, huh? What if you started falling for me and wanted to meet face to face? Someone would be eating their words then, wouldn't they? So, since you are a chick, I'm guessing that username isn't a reference to Ed, Edd and Eddy...I'm feeling generous tonight, I'll admit I'm a guy. A guy that now knows how you reacted to that scary clown movie..." Her cheeks were blushing as she responded to his cheeky words.
"I could have been lying about the clown thing...and what makes you think that I'd fall for some dude I met on a silly chat room? Besides, I'm...never mind. Can we talk about something other than scary movies?" A change of topic was dearly needed.
"Whats really got you up tonight?"
"A lot of things. I don't think you'd want to hear my real answers anyway." Who would? It'd sound whiney and self absorbed.
"Fine, I'll tell you what's keeping me up. Maybe that'll make you feel like opening up too. Like you said, it's not like we're gonna meet face to face.
I'm up this late because of my job. I guard my boss, stand outside his bedroom door and stay awake till its time to change shifts. My partners goofing off on his phone too, and we both just find ways to pass the time till our shift is over."
"A body guard, huh? Sounds like you're kinda a lax one...What if your boss got hurt while you were goofing off?" Not that she absolutely believed his story, she'd go along for the sake of conversation.
"Take it easy, I'm good at multitasking. I'm also a good listener."
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Tifa heard the sound of her front door opening, Cloud was finally home! Hurriedly, she logged out of the chat room and put her laptop on top of her nightstand. Excitedly she waited in bed, her ears straining to listen for the noise of booted feet plodding up the stairs. Her ears picked up another noise instead, the sound of her refrigerator door opening.
Well, he had been out all night, it made sense that he was hungry...Not that it would have hurt him to pop in real quick to say hello before grabbing a snack...Tifa began to feel less enthused at her companions arrival, her restless hands brought her laptop back onto her blanketed lap. She quickly logged back into her chat room and noticed her chat buddy had typed in a bunch of question marks.
"Sorry, I heard a noise outside my room, but it wound up being a false alarm..." Why she even bothered leaving the door unlocked for Cloud was making less sense every day. If food was more important that announcing his arrival, then Tifa was farther down the totem pole than she originally thought.
"Oh, looking for boogie men lurking in the dark? It's cool, I thought you were just bored and went to chat with someone else." He wasn't boring to her, it wasn't the worst time she'd ever spent talking to someone.
"No, you're actually pretty fun to banter with. I was kinda worried I'd find only perverts on here."
"It's a chat room, anything's possible. I could be a seventy year old guy trying to con you into going out with me. It's not my real intention, but it has been nice talking to you. Will I get a chance to chit chat with you another night?" That was a good question, one she didn't have an exact answer to. Tifa ended their conversation with a
"We'll see. . ."
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Tifa chuckled to herself as she logged off for the final time that evening. It had helped, typing away and enjoying interaction with another person as she sat in her quiet, lonely room. It made her laugh, and feel a little better about life that evening. She closed her laptop and carefully placed it on her nightstand.
The sound of boots stomping up the stairs caught her attention, she pulled out her hair scrunchy and let her long locks drape about her shoulders attractively. She threw down her covers to expose her white tank top and panties, trying to pull off an attractive display for when her companion came in.
Cloud opened the door and the smell he exuded reeked of alcohol and body odor. His usually clean shaven face had a very unappealing five o'clock shadow going, his hair was dirty and limp, apparently he had run out of spiking gel...
"You're out of milk." He informed her, stripping down to his filthy looking underwear.
"I think someone could use a hot shower." She coughed, as his odorous body began to loom near her. Tifa had hopped out of bed and headed towards her bathroom, waving at her stinky boyfriend to follow.
As she began to turn on the faucet, she felt rough hands touching her rear. "Cloud, lets get you in the shower first." She spoke in a level headed tone, forcing his hands away as she turned to face him.
"I don't need a shower." He mumbled tiredly, his face filling with grogginess.
"Come on, in you go!" Tifa encouraged him. She held her breath as she physically helped him into the shower, pulling down his grotesque undies before giving him a shove underneath the warm spray of water. From the sidelines, Tifa used a loofa to soap up Clouds body, his mind foggy and unfocused as he stood dumbly underneath the warm spray. Tifa had him smelling like a fresh bouquet of roses when she was finished with him. She assisted with his exit out of the shower, toweling off his slender, and lightly bruised frame.
Where had he gotten all those bruises? He never really liked opening up about where he went all the time, Tifa had no clue why he was bruised, but if he wasn't going to let her in then how was she suppose to help?
He sighed tiredly into her face, and Tifa almost vomited from the smell. Besides the booze smell, Cloud had the stench of what must have been a pastrami sandwich...There was no way she'd deal with that all night, burping in her face that horrid smell. She lead him over to the bathroom sink and got out his electric toothbrush and some toothpaste.
"Tifa, I just want to sleep..." He complained, but he held still for her as she made sure his mouth was thoroughly cleaned, brushing his teeth for him like a mother would for a small child. Once she was satisfied with his overall hygiene, Tifa helped him into bed.
As she went around to her own side, and turned out her light, the sound of Clouds snores began to echo throughout the room. Already her partner was asleep, unable to cuddle or talk with her. Sighing, Tifa turned on her side, facing away from Cloud, as she closed her disappointed eyes.
Nights like these made her wonder if it wasn't better when he just stayed out doing his thing, rather than having him come home in such a condition.
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Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 belongs to Square Enix.