A/N: I apologize. I failed to mention in the last chapter that the characters and places do not belong to me or the original author. They are property of SquareEnix. Trust me, if I owned them, I would be doing a lot more with them than writing fan fiction.

Cupcake: Luckily, this is all pre-written, so all I really have to do is type it up and submit it. I will type as fast as I am able and get these up for ya.

Things Change

Chapter 2: Tea and Old Friends

When Tifa arrived home around 3 the next afternoon, Sephiroth greeted her with a friendly smile. She smiled back, and his smile almost unnoticeably switched from friendly, to inquisitive.

She imitated him. "What?"

Sephiroth shrugged. "Did you have a good day?"

Tifa nodded. "Yes I did. Thanks. Did you?"

"It was okay."

Whatever… Tifa thought.

"Why are you home so early?" Sephiroth continued. "Yesterday you were still wherever you were."

"Yesterday I had to take over Lara's shift."

"Who?"

"A friend."

Ding Dong!

Tifa hurried to the door. She opened it and let out a loud squeal of delight.

"Cloud! Hi! I've missed you!" she said.

Sephiroth listened as the man, Cloud was apparently his name, and Tifa chatted in the doorway.

"Can I come in?" Cloud asked. Tifa was quick to answer. "Of course you- oh, wait. Uh, no. I don't think that would be wise."

Cloud didn't seem to be expecting that. "What? Why not?"

Tifa stalled, hoping Sephiroth would get the hint. He didn't. Sephiroth walked over and Cloud almost died of a heart attack then and there. "What the heck?!"

He drew his Ultima Weapon and prepared to strike.

"No Cloud!" Tifa protested.

Cloud ignored her and lunged at Sephiroth, only to have his target move at the last second, causing him to collide with the coffee table. He quickly righted himself, going for another pass. He barely had time to stop before killing Tifa instead.

She stood in front of Sephiroth with her arms spread. "Stop Cloud! You don't understand!"

Cloud frowned. "What is there not to understand? Tifa, you have Sephiroth in your house!!"

"I know that! But you have to listen to me! He doesn't remember anything! Do you think I would be here right now if he did?"

"…but-"

"Do you think I would be protecting him if I didn't have complete trust that he wouldn't harm me?"

"No… but Tifa-"

"No 'buts'! Just let him explain. Sephiroth, explain."

Sephiroth hesitated, eyeing Cloud and his sword. "I, um… w-well…"

"Out with it!" Cloud ordered. Sephiroth gained control of his speech and told his story. Cloud was still skeptical.

"And you believed him?" He asked Tifa.

"Yes!" She exclaimed.

"Why?"

Silence.

"Well?"

"Because, well… I don't know… I just do, I guess."

"That is the lamest thing I have ever heard."

"Yeah? Well… Just because you don't think he's capable of change! Go home Cloud!"

"Gladly." Tifa and Sephiroth stepped aside, allowing Cloud to leave.

Tifa slammed the door with an irritated sigh. "I'm sorry Tifa." Sephiroth said.

Tifa stopped glaring at the door and turned to him. "It's not your fault. Well, it is, but you know what I mean."

Sephiroth shook his head. "No, I don't. And I won't until you tell me." Tifa sighed.

Sephiroth continued. "That's how they all react. Why do that all do that?"They were silent for a long while. Finally, Sephiroth asked, "Tifa, did I deserve what happened to me?"

Tifa took a breath. "Yes. I'm afraid you did."

Sephiroth wasn't at all prepared for that. "Oh."

He unnecessarily cleared his throat. An awkward silence followed, there seemed to be a lot of that.

Sephiroth changed the subject. "So, it's your birthday?"

Tifa looked at him with a puzzled expression. Sephiroth pointed to the card on her shelf.

"Oh!" She said brightly. "Yeah, in 3 days."

"How nice."

"Yeah, Nanaki sent that card."

"Who?"

"A friend."

"Oh."

"You made the 'bed' I see."

Sephiroth looked at the neatly made sofa-bed sheepishly. "Yeah."

Tifa smiled. "Do you want some tea?"

"What?"

"I'm going to make some tea, do you want some?"

"What's tea?"

"Never mind. I'll make some and you tell me if you like it okay?"

"Alright." Sephiroth followed her into the kitchen as she put some water on.

"So," Sephiroth began. "Who's Nanaki?"

Tifa smiled. "An old friend. Hey, I think I have a picture somewhere."She fished around a drawer a moment and retrieved a photo. She showed it to Sephiroth and said, "It's a group shot taken after we saved the world."

Sephiroth looked at her. "You saved the world?"

Tifa nodded. "Along with Cloud, Nanaki, Cait Sith, Cid, Barret, Vincent, and Yuffie." She pointed to each one as she said their names. Her smile faded a bit.

"There was… one other, but… there was an accident."

"What happened?""I'll tell you some other time."

"Alright." He handed the picture back to Tifa and she put it away. The kettle whistled just then, and Tifa poured the water into her mug. She waited a while for the tea to steep, then she took a sip. She closed her eyes and sighed. When she opened her eyes again, she offered her mug to Sephiroth. He was a little hesitant, but with Tifa's prompting, he took a drink.

"Good?" Tifa asked. Sephiroth nodded and swallowed.

"So," He said, "What did you save the world from?"

Tifa almost inhaled her tea. Sephiroth looked at her strangely. "You okay?"

Tifa nodded. "Meteor."

"Huh?"

"Meteor. We saved the world from Meteor."

"What's Meteor?"

"An evil thing summoned by Black Materia."

"What's Materia?"

"I'll show you." Tifa set her tea down and went to her room. She emerged a second later with a small, white, sphere.

"This is Materia." Tifa smiled a sad smile. "This one does nothing. I just kept it because it belonged to a friend of mine. The others do various things."

She went on to describe how Materia was used, when she finished, Sephiroth seemed to get the hang of it. It was almost weird for her to think that the once great Sephiroth, didn't know anything about Materia now. Tifa took a drink of her tea, then spit it back out and into the sink.

"I hate cold tea." she explained. Sephiroth smiled a little. The doorbell then rang, and Tifa scurried off to answer it. She returned a moment later with a stack of mail in one hand and a single envelope in the other. She put the stack on the table and opened the envelope, the contents made her smile and she put it on the shelf.

"That card," she said. "Was from Barrett."

Sephiroth smiled. "How long ago did you save the world?"

"You're still on that subject? About… wow a year ago next month. Didn't take anyone very long to get their lives back on track."

"Where did all your friends end up?"

"Hang on." Tifa brought out the picture again for reference. "Barrett and his daughter Marlene moved to Corel. Cid moved back to Rocket Town and is engaged to Shera, Yuffie moved back to Wutai, Cait Sith, or Reeve, moved to Costa del Sol, as he bought the Shinra house there, no one knows where Vincent went, but I have a hunch he went back to the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim, but Cloud denies ever seeing him there, Cloud moved to Nibelheim, and Nanaki went with Cloud."

"If Nanaki went with Cloud, why didn't Cloud send a card?"

Tifa said nothing, she just stood blinking and frowning at Sephiroth with her mouth open. "That's a good question, and I don't have any idea."

She went and sat down on her chair in the living room, and stared moodily at her hands.

Sephiroth sat across the room from her on the futon. "I'm sorry Tifa. I didn't intend to make you unhappy."

Tifa looked up at him. "It's not your fault. I'm just really surprised. It's not like I live for getting birthday cards, it's just nice to be remembered. Especially by the man I used to- never mind."

"Used to what?"

"Nothing. Nothing you need to worry about." She stood up and began to cook dinner. It was obvious to Sephiroth that something was troubling her, but he didn't want to press. So he just dropped the matter and asked Tifa if he could help with dinner.