Chapter 2

Several days had passed, and Tifa seemed happier in spirit and brighter in mood. And the change in her demeanour brought about a question from one of her close friends.

"Anything to do with the new boy?" Sophie enquired teasingly.

Tifa felt her face redden. She was out shopping in the markets, and she had been telling Sophie all about Cloud; of how he made her life easier with the work that he did in the tavern, how he had volunteered to collect unpaid tabs from late paying customers, and had also offered to deliver small packages for her. In fact, thinking about it, the blond boy appeared to have been the favourite topic of all her conversations with others lately. She didn't think she'd been too overboard in her enthusiasm for him but… "He's really good," Tifa answered in response to Sophie's friendly jibe. "Fast and efficient."

"I bet he is. So, now we know what he's like in the bedroom, what's he like at his job?" Sophie giggled, being rewarded with a small playful slap to her arm.

"I was talking about him doing his job!" Tifa chastised, not really angry at all with her friend. They were always bantering with one another in this fashion, joshing with each other over clothing, hair styles, and boyfriends. Picking up an apple from a stall, Tifa rubbed it on her sleeve, turning the fruit to see if it had any bruises. "I have yet to discover his bedroom skills," she admitted, paying for the apple, and half a dozen others with it.

"You've let him stay under your roof with you, alone at night, and you've yet to have him jump your bones?" Sophie asked in amazement, watching as Tifa carefully stowed her new purchase in her shoulder sack. "What is wrong with you? Are you losing your touch? Haven't you jiggled those melons in front of him?" Tifa cast her friend a reproachful look, but that didn't stop Sophie. "You know you can have any man you want by just doing a little bunny hop in front of him. Heck, you can have any man you want even without the bunny hop," Sophie chortled. Then, more sombrely she added, "You don't think he, you know, prefers the other team?"

"Men? No!" Tifa laughed. "Does he look gay to you?" she asked as she stopped in front of another stall to check out the wares on offer, moving on when they didn't pass her inspection.

Shopping in this section of Midgar was always a busy event. It seemed everyone was up and about early. Most, like Tifa, were eager to get the job of shopping out of the way so the rest of the day could be enjoyed. Others just wanted to get their shopping done in the cool of the dawn, to avoid the full heat of the sun as the day wore on.

"Seriously though, he never flirts with anybody," Tifa told Sophie, stepping backwards into her friend to avoid being trampled by an overly large lady who was bustling through the narrow aisle like she owned the place. "And," she added as an afterthought, her voice sounding wistful, "he never laughs or smiles. Not once, since he's been working for me, have I seen his mouth break into a full on grin. He has such pretty lips too… it's a shame not to see them curled upwards."

"I'd say it's time for you to make your move on him, you seem besotted," Sophie answered, while giving the finger to the retreating back of the large woman who had pushed past so rudely.

Tifa yanked her friend's hand down, shaking her head and laughing. "I'm not sure about him though. There's something not quite right."

"He's handsome," Sophie argued, violently elbowing her way through a mass of packed bodies that prevented her and Tifa from getting to the front of the next stall, which was selling breads and cakes and pastries.

"Devilishly handsome," Tifa agreed, her dark eyes flashing for a moment, betraying just how much she did like her new blond boarder. "He doesn't say much, won't speak about his life. It's almost like, he has things to hide."

"Don't we all?" Sophie exclaimed, her fingers reaching out and grabbing at one of the last few loaves that the baker had left to sell. "Here," she said passing it to Tifa. "At least you can try tempting your new lodger into talking by inviting him to eat with you tonight," she said, paying for the bread before forcing her way back out of the throng of people and beginning to walk along the less packed sections of the street.

"He's just so quiet, and comes across as being shy," Tifa continued, adding the latest acquisition to her carry sack. "And, I don't want to scare him off by coming on too strong. He seems different somehow to other men. He never toys with me. He never tries it on, like an accidental slip of his hand against my breasts followed by a half-hearted apology. He always talks to me respectfully, like I'm a lady. And he opens doors for me, and holds out chairs. I… I like it," Tifa admitted with a giggle.

"He sounds like quite the perfect gentleman. You have got to let me know what he's like between the sheets when you finally get together. I bet he's a beast," Sophie teased, laughing.

"Who says we're going to do it for the first time in a bed?" Tifa replied with a smile. "For all you know, I might ravish him in the yard behind the rear of the Seventh, under the soft moonlight. Or I could join him as he bathes in the shower. Or I might just abuse his body in the cellar as he changes the beer kegs over."

"Ooh, someone has been thinking a lot about her new worker," Sophie remarked, her mouth creased into a broad grin. "I wonder though, just how he would make love to you," she added, with a mischievous wink.

Tifa cast a glance at her friend, wondering what she was talking about.

"Would he use that quiet tongue of his, to make you scream with passion? Would he work his agile fingers in you, to make you slippery? Would he move his toned naked body over the top of yours with his smooth skin sliding like velvet against your nipples? Would he align his rigid cock up with your moist hole and push in gently, making you aware of him inch…by….inch? Or would he take you selfishly and fast while his mouth closed down over yours, his throat swallowing your cries of pleasure as his hips pumped ceaselessly against you?"

Biting at her lower lip, imagining Cloud's kisses and caresses just the way Sophie described them, Tifa's eyes glazed over with the stirrings of lust and she begged her friend, "Oh stop it, please! Otherwise I'll make a spectacle of myself right here in front of all these people."

Sophie laughed at the pink cheeked girl but did as Tifa requested, and turned her conversation instead to the owner of the stall which they were currently stood by. "I swear your stock is out of date," she argued with the man, picking up a small mesh bag of peaches, debating with him that the fruit was unfit to eat and bartering with him until she had gotten the held fruit a little cheaper. With a satisfied smile, she added them to her basket. Then, changing the subject a little she asked of Tifa as they moved on, "Any word yet from your errant lover?"

Tifa shook her head in a dejected fashion. "He normally gets in touch by now, just to let me know where he is…"

"Or who he's with," Sophie interjected with a displeased look on her face.

Ignoring her friend's comment, and look, Tifa continued, "But no, nothing. He didn't even say goodbye this time either, which is strange as well."

"If it makes you feel any better, you're not the only one who's got a missing boyfriend," Sophie said, leaning in towards the dark haired girl and whispering conspiratorially, "I've heard the mayor's daughter has been abandoned too, just days before her wedding. And remember Annabel? I'm sure you do, she was the one with the buck teeth and the bright red hair when she was small, and we use to call her Red Bunny. Haha, now you remember her! Seems her beloved has left for pastures new also, without a word to anyone. People are saying her father has a bounty out on his head as she is... you know…"

Tifa couldn't help but smile as Sophie did an over dramatic impression of an enlarged belly with her hands. "The poor girl," she said in response to the news. "At least I don't have that problem."

Not wanting Tifa to become glum, Sophie moved the topic back to a subject she knew would be welcome. "So, what does Cloud do in his spare time?"

"I have no idea," Tifa answered as she followed her friend. "When he's not working he's in his room, sleeping I suppose. Other than that he's usually in the yard tinkering with his motorbike, or else he's riding the machine somewhere, for hours at a time. Sometimes he's gone almost all night, not coming back until the early hours of the morning."

"And you don't know where he goes, or who he might be seeing?" Sophie asked. Tifa shook her head. "Aren't you even a little bit curious? He could be seeing another girl for all you know. Why don't you use your womanly wiles on him and learn what you're obviously desperate to find out; if he's a good shag," Sophie urged playfully.

"I… I couldn't!" Tifa exclaimed, seemingly appalled by her friends suggestion. But inside her mind, the seed of Cloud's seduction had been planted.

And Sophie grinned impishly.