This story was inspired by the song Happy Christmas (War is Over) by John Lennon. SO this is probably going to be a rather sad story unlike everything else that I have been up too. I will TRY, and I do mean TRY, to get my other stories up to date, I know that I have a request to finish and a some other stories that I have to do because I haven't updated them in quite a long time.

Anyway I am just babbling and no one really cares so feel free to skip to the story. :) Hope that you all enjoy my story.

This is a Zack x Tifa story that is about getting even with ShinRa.

Christmas in Midgar

Chapter 1

Zack was spending his time in the workout room like he normally did, since the president of the company had decided to give all of the First Class SOLDIER's the month off due to the president taking a month long vacation, he also threw in a special Christmas Bonus. Zack really had no use for such a Christmas Bonus since he had all of the money that he could want, now Angeal should have been down working out with Zack but for all that Zack knew Angeal could have a special guest in his room.

The music was loud and could be heard from down that halls, but Zack didn't care it drowned out any city noise that was trying to sweep through and get him into the Christmas spirit. Zack normally jumped on to the Christmas boat and made the hole company suffer with his off-key singing and complete over joy. Zack thought about it and all that he could think of that would cause his bad attitude was there was no one to spend it with this year.

Zack wanted a drink of something strong and mind numbing, and he knew just the barmaid to fix his craving. He got cleaned up and headed down to 7th Heaven, he kicked at the snow as he walked. It seemed like he visited 7th Heaven a lot here lately, it wasn't like there was a lot of stress that could have caused Zack to go and drink more than once a week. Maybe it was the barmaid, but who knows and Zack sure as hell didn't know. Cloud has brought Zack to 7th Heaven when Tifa had opened it, she needed all of the support that she could get and bringing in SOLDIER's made for good profit. The bar was just about to open when Zack arrived, he was given permission to come and go whenever he pleased as long as he paid for his drink if he had one.

"Hey! Anyone home!" he laughed as he sat at the bar knowing Tifa was probably taking care of Marlene.

"The bar is closed!" her voice came from up the stairs, he smiled and waited patiently. She soon came down and looked at the raven haired man sitting at the bar playing with the napkins. "Oh its just you Zack. What brings you here?"

"I need something strong and numbing Tifa." he sighed and looked at her with a gentle smile.

"Hmm, something strong and numbing? Let me see what I got." she goes behind the bar and looks for Zack special request. "Something on your mind? Stress at work?"

'I don't really know, I just need something to take my mind off things. You know?" Zack tipped his head before laying it on the counter top.

"I guess I can relate, here I've got Tequila or Vodka. You pick" She tipped her head at the SOLDIER, she didn't like SOLDIER's all that much but that was mostly because what their job made them do. ShinRa was a bad company and one of these days AVALANCHE was going to stop them, Tifa just didn't know if that meant destroying all of the SOLDIERs too.

"Either one is fine, I don't honestly care." He sat up as she set a couple shots in front of him and filled them both. The bar started to fill with people and Zack started seeing Tifa less and less and almost had to resort to getting his own drink from behind the counter. He stayed till she closed a little after that, he didn't really get to talk with her except for the little talk before chaos reigned in the bar. Zack didn't want to admit it but he kind of liked Tifa, and not just as a friend, he wanted to get to know her more but with everything that has been going on he hasn't had time to come by and see her.

Tifa found it strange that the SOLDIER stayed all night, most of the SOLDIERs that came in and got a drink left once the bar had filled. Zack was different, he didn't seem to mind all the foul language and the random horny guys that came in the bar. Tifa was cleaning the bar when everyone had left, well everyone except Zack who had started to help her clean up.

"so Tifa what are you planning on doing for Christmas?" his voice came out of no where, she thought about what she was going to be doing for Christmas and couldn't find anything.

"um.. I guess I am not doing anything. Are you doing anything?" She looked at him and took the dirty glasses from his hands.

"I don't know, depends if Angeal is busy or not I guess. Cloud went back to Nibelheim for the holidays." He put a wad of cash on the cash register to pay for everything that he had drank.

"You shouldn't be alone on Christmas, that's just silly. If Angeal is busy you can come here and we will have our own party." she dried her hands on the dish towel before throwing it over her shoulder.

"I'll think about it Tifa. Night" He gives her a gentle smile before heading for the door and leaves, he heads back to his apartment noticing that it had started snowing harder then it had before.

Tifa P.O.V.

Tifa watched Zack leave with a small tug on her heart, yeah she was falling for the SOLDIER but it was against AVALANCHE rules to date the enemy. That's the part the hurt her the most, she was in love with the enemy. Marlene came down the stairs and looked at Tifa with wonder and curiosity.

"Tifa who was that?" the little girl tipped her head at the tall brunet woman.

"He's a friend." She wasn't completely lying to the girl, Zack was her friend via Cloud but he was also worked for SOLDIER. Barret was going to kill her if he found out that she had feelings for the enemy, she didn't care for ShinRa or anything that involved it but she cared for the energetic blue/violet eyed man that came in often.

"You have a lot of friends Tifa" Marlene wasn't sure what it was about the mysterious man that made Tifa act strange but she didn't like it. It was kind of like Cloud when he had been on missions for a long time, but not really. Tifa could tell that the little girl was trying to solve something in her mind, she laughed at the funny expression that played with the girls face.

"I know I do, now go back to bed. You don't want to be tired when Barret shows up to pick you up, do you?" the girl laughed and ran back upstairs, Tifa simply shook her head before she finished cleaning up the bar and counted her profits starting with Zack's huge wad of money. She didn't know how he knew how much he had to pay but he was dead on, well as far as she could remember he was. She put all the money in the money box and locked it before she headed upstairs and but the box in a safe in her room.

She walked over to the window and looked out the window, she could see the ShinRa building and only a few lights were on. She wondered which one was Zack's, not that she really cared but it was just a curiosity thing. A light turned off in the distant building, she turned away and went to bed.

The next day

She woke up and headed downstairs to start making breakfast for her AVALANCHE team that was sure to show up any minute, she heard the front door open and figured that Barret had come in and headed up to see Marlene. Usually Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie were close behind Barret so the silence was more than awkward, she turned and headed back out to the bar area only to see a familiar pair of blue/violet eyes looking at her.

"Zack! Wh-what are you doing here?" She stood in udder disbelief, and trying hard to not go into a total freak out as the SOLDIER came into the kitchen looking for the source of the smell that filled the building.

"Oh just thought that I would drop by, tomorrow is Christmas and I don't have a thing to do in my now boring life." Zack stabbed one of the sausage patties that was on a plate with a fork and shoved it in his mouth.

"Zack… You.. Uh-" The front door opened and a bunch of voices started filling the area, she looked at Zack with complete horror in her eyes. "You have to leave! This isn't a good time Zack! Please just leave!" She whispered so no one but Zack could hear her, her voice was drenched with worry and panic.

"What is it? Who is here that can't know I am" Zack kept his voice low like hers but was curious why she was freaking out.

"AVALANCHE, now please just leave!" she put some food in a container and gave it to him as she shoved him out the back door, hoping that he could get away before they all found out. She quickly started serving food to the hungry people that were sitting at the bar.

"Geeze Tifa, it took you long enough!" Biggs laughed at the young bartender.

"Sorry I didn't hear you all come in, I must have been off in my own world. So Barret what is the game plan?" Tifa thought that the sudden change in subject would make them quickly forget about her lack of focus.

"We are takin' down the closest ShinRa Mako Reactor! But we need someone to get inside and destroy it that way" He looked at Tifa and she instantly knew that she was going to have to blow it up. What about Zack? What about the SOLDIERs that are only doing what they are told?

"I can't wait to see them go down!" Biggs was jumping with joy as he ate. They all dug in to the wonderful meal that Tifa made for them, Marlene joined shortly after the discussion was over. It wasn't long before they all left and headed back to where they were going to go, Tifa sat on the floor behind her bar wondering how she was going to be able to get in and do all of this. She was sure that Zack was going to keep her busy and not let her go and do what she was told. She couldn't kill thousands of SOLDIERs just because ShinRa was killing the planet.

The bell on the door rang as it opened and slammed shut, she heard foot steps come and stop on the other site of the counter. She hadn't realized that she had been crying till she went to cover her face and put her bartender face on. She quickly used the dish towel to dry her eyes and stood up acting like she put something away. She met a pair of blue eyes, which looks similar to Zack's but it wasn't Zack.

"Have you seen Zack Fair? He comes in here often." He looked at the barmaid with slight concern as he could tell that she had been crying.

"He came in this morning, ordered some breakfast and left." She lied, she couldn't believe how much lying she had done with in the past 24 hours.

"Thank You." and with that the man left, not saying another word. She didn't like the fact that he wore his sword while he was in asking questions, she wondered if this was the guy Zack was always talking about. Angeal Hewley.

Barret was asking to start a war with people that just ended the war between Midgar and Wutai. War had been all around them and now that it was finally over Barret was wanting to start another with ShinRa, ShinRa had been ignoring AVALANCHE for the longest time because they didn't seem like a big threat. NOW Barret was leading them to death, there were only 5 AVALANCHE members and well over 100 SOLDIERS. She quickly ran to the phone and called Cloud hoping that he had Zack phone number, she needed to talk to him and need to… hell she didn't even know what she was going to do.

"Yes Tifa?" Cloud answered quickly causing her to slightly jump.

"Cloud, I need Zack's phone number. Do you have it?" She was hoping that he did, it would really suck if he didn't.

"Give me a minute." the line went dead for a little bit before cloud came back and rattled off some numbers "I am pretty sure that is it but don't yell at me if I am wrong"

"Thanks Cloud, have a good Christmas"

"You too" they both hung up and Tifa quickly dialed Zack's number and hoped that there would be an answer.

"Hey you have reached Zack, I am busy right now so leave a message and I will call you back." She sighed in aggravation and left Zack an aggravated message.

"Zack Answer your phone, I need to talk to you. Preferably at your apartment or somewhere NO ONE can hear us. Please call me back. Or stop by 7th Heaven." She hung up and sat on the couch in the other room with the phone in her hand.

She waited for hours hoping that he would show up or do something, anything.