Change Comes Fast Chapter Four

A/N Ayame11Midori, thank you for the comment and see what happens! Btw, I might be slowing down a little, but I'll try not to.

Chapter Five

Rubbing her eye absently, Tifa watched as Zack unlocked her door efficiently. She smiled and kept drinking from the bottle she had been nursing all night. She smiled goofily as she watched him walk into the bar. She sat at one of the front tables and started drinking again. Then she looked up at him.

"You want some?" she called out to him. She heard him sigh and then felt him take the bottle from her.

"It's been a long day, you need some rest," he said as he set the bottle down on the bar. He came over to her, picked her up, and made his way upstairs.

"I missed this when you were gone," she said drunkenly. Zack smiled slightly, and tightened his arms around her.

"I missed you when I was gone," he admitted to her. Tifa giggled in response. Then she sobered up.

"I thought my heart wasn't going to heal when you left, Zack," she stated seriously. He walked to her bedroom, and set her down on the bed. He kneeled in front of her and took one of her hands. He felt the tears before he saw them. "Please don't leave me again. I can't bear it a second time."

Zack took his free hand and wiped her tears away. He set her back in the bed and stood up slowly. He knelt down by her ear.

"I won't leave you after I've just found you again," he whispered and kissed the top of her head. He smiled when he heard her breathing even out as he stepped out of the door.

Shaking his head slightly, Zack looked at the gigantic pile of paperwork he had. Before he could even blink, a hand came out of nowhere and pushed him to his desk.

"What are you doing here?" Shinra almost yelled at Zack. Zack looked at the man with pure venom, but chose to go to his desk. While the man was ranting, with Zack conveniently not listening, Zack started to sort through his mail. "I gave you specific instructions to never leave her side! She's to be protected at all times!"

"She wants to see more of you," Zack said with a fake calmness. "If you weren't screwing your secretary, she would." Shinra froze. Zack braced himself for an onslaught in a subtle way.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO MAKE THAT ALLEGATION! YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!" Shinra bellowed as he jumped forward to grab Zack's throat. Zack eased out of the chair and dodged the attack easily. All he did was dodge everything that Shinra threw at him until Rude came in. Zack grinned and allowed Rude to take hold of his boss before the man did something he would regret.

"RUDE, LET ME GO! I'M GOING TO GET HIM TODAY! I'VE HAD IT!" the vice-president shouted. Zack smiled slightly at the sight of Rude restraining his boss, but gladly went back to sorting his mail. Cloud came into the room and stopped cold when he saw the Turk and the VP. He looked at Zack, who motioned him forward without looking up from his desk, and put the assignments on Zack's desk and ran as fast as he could from the room.

"Take the rest of the week off," Zack called out as Cloud neared the door. "Happy anniversary, by the way." Cloud thanked him quietly and was out the door in a flash. After he left, Shinra started yelling again.

"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?" he yelled. Zack just shrugged and continued to ignore Shinra. "YOU'RE A WORTHLESS SCUMBAG! NO WONDER SHE BROKE UP WITH YOU!"

"That is enough," an elderly voice said from the background. Zack immediately got up and bowed to the elder man, walking over to the man and escorting him into Zack's office.

"President Shinra," he said in a formal tone and offered the president his seat. The man accepted and sat down. He looked at his son then at Zack.

"Rufus, you will cease harassing my employees. They are not under your jurisdiction. They are under the board's power," the president said. Rufus grumbled but nodded. Looking his son dead in the eye, President Shinra dismissed his son with a wave of his hand. Shinra left with his back straight. When he was out of earshot, the president looked at Zack.

"When did you find out he was cheating on her?" the president asked Zack seriously. Zack blinked at the man and smiled in comfort. The old man was notorious for trusting his SOLDIERs more than his own son.

"Sir, the smile that secretary has every day is not from working with your son so closely. It's because she's continually satisfied, I know that look very well, sir," Zack said in a formal tone. The president cackled.

"Young man, you remind me of myself when I was younger. You better get that young lady before she realizes that rascal of mine is cheating on her," the president said as he got up from the door and was walking toward the door.

"Sir, she's already figuring that out," Zack said. "And Angeal shouldn't tell you everything." All the president did was laugh.

It was three in the morning when he made it back to Tifa's house. He unlocked the door and went upstairs. He removed the chair and made his way toward the guest bedroom. Stretching out, he sighed in relief. The bed was not the one he wanted to be in, but it was still the most comfortable thing he slept on in a long while. It didn't help him that the reason why was sleeping only a couple rooms away. He couldn't even make one thought before he passed out.

Furious, Tifa stormed into her kitchen at seven in the morning. She brought one of her buckets and poured ice-cold water into it. She heaved it up her stairs and went toward the source of the snoring.

Tifa was mad when she got up at seven in the morning. She made her way down to her bar and got a huge bucket of ice-cold water. She knew that Zack was upstairs because of the fact that he was snoring. She just made her way up there and proceeded to go into his room. She hefted the bucket over her head and poured it all over him. She laughed as he came up sputtering and cursing.

"God dammit woman! What the hell made you do that!" he yelled at her. She smiled and tossed him a towel.

"Never lock me in my home. This is my home, not yours," she said calmly. Zack sputtered at her. After the water was cleared from his face, he smiled at her seductively. She turned slightly red at his look.

"That bed in your room is mine," he shot back. Tifa turned red. Zack grinned. "Guess it hasn't gotten a lot of mileage lately." Tifa swatted him and he laughed at her.

"You are a pervert!" she said.

"That's not what you used to say at four o'clock in the morning. You'd be the one who'd want to continue when all I wanted was some rest," he teased her. She turned red and punched him some more.

"Why are you bringing that up now?" she taunted. Zack sobered up immediately.

"You'll find out," he said. Zack sighed and got up off the bed. He shook the water out of his hair and smiled at her. When he went out of the room, Tifa snuck a glance at his behind.

"Stop looking at my ass," he called out as he went into the bathroom. Tifa turned redder. Embarrassment and fury combined rapidly and she smiled when an idea came to her mind. She quickly made her way to the pantry on the second floor and took all of the towels out of it. She heard Zack singing in the shower as she went downstairs. Turning on the bar faucet, and running it extremely hot, waited for about three minutes.

"TIFA!" Zack yelled from upstairs. She heard his footsteps come out of the bathroom and go over toward the pantry. Tifa giggled and laughed as Zack came down in a quilt. "Where the hell are the towels?"

Just giving him one glance, Tifa smiled wickedly and left the room. Zack scowled as she left the room and just shook his head as he went to find where she hid the towels.

The morning passed and it became early afternoon. Instead of going anywhere, Tifa opened her bar. Zack knew better than to argue with the woman who made his life hell that earlier morning, and just lounged on one of the chairs in her bar. As he was reading a magazine, the blonde from the flower shop came charging up to him.

"How dare you!" she yelled at him. He raised an eyebrow. Zack watched her throw a fit about how he ditched her and tuned her out until she stopped speaking.

"Sorry, I forgot," Zack said lamely. The woman turned red and slapped him hard on the cheek. She slapped him again and marched out the door. Vincent, who held the door open for the enraged female, looked at Zack with faint amusement and nodded to Tifa. She smiled at him and started making him a drink.

"Shinra's pissed at you," Vincent greeted Zack with. He watched Zack smile and continued his story. "He came into the office this morning giving a tirade about how the SOLDIER program deserves to be disbanded and you would be the first one fired. He also said something about banishing you from the building."

"He can't do that," Zack said with a shrug. He grinned sarcastically. "The security would want to kick him out more than me anyways." He gave Vincent a hooded look and continued. "The president runs the SOLDIER program, and the only way the young pup can get power is if the board says he's allowed to."

"SOLDIERs have their butts covered, huh?" Vincent asked Zack. Zack just shrugged and looked at Tifa.

"We can't afford not to have everything covered," Zack said as he watched a huge bouquet of roses come into the shop. Tifa accepted the flowers, with happiness in her eyes, until she saw the written inscription.

"Who is Chloe?" Tifa said quietly. Zack and Vincent looked at her pale face and then saw her start to flush with fury. "I'm going to get some answers. Let's go, useless." Zack grinned and shot a quick look of amusement to Vincent.

"She means me," Zack said to Vincent. Vincent just shook his head. Quickly putting the pieces together, Vincent watched as Zack left with Tifa in a deceptively calm manner. The man had plotted everything, Vincent suspected, but it was one of the many reasons that he honed his nickname. Being called The Trickster was not a light name, and the man who wore the name was a renowned tactician and loyal comrade. Vincent wondered how lucky Tifa knew she was with a man like that on her side no matter what the circumstances.

Zack pulled into the back parking lot of the Shinra building. He quickly got out of the car and motioned for Tifa to follow him. He grabbed her hand and pulled her along the back passages toward the upper floor offices.

"Come on!" she said when she realized where they were. She watched the security try to reach them out of the corner of her eye and saw low ranking SOLDIERs surround them. Zack nodded subtly and opened the door to get to the elevator. Tifa rushed to the elevator and pushed the button for the second highest floor. Zack looked at Tifa as she marched off of the elevator and toward Shinra's office. The Turks on the floor looked quizzically at the sight of the woman marching into their boss' office. Some paled when they saw Zack stand outside the office with a smug expression on his face. Zack stood blocking the entrance to the office, not that anyone dared approach the door. He smiled at the secretary, who started to pale, and heard yelling from behind the door.

"Rufus, how could you?" Tifa yelled. The secretary got up to rush in but Zack shook his head.

"Because he couldn't marry me!" the secretary shouted. Zack saw Tseng approach the door, but only smiled at the man. Tseng approached him closely and saw the two figures inside the room and made a motion for the door handle.

"Touch that door handle and you won't feel your fingers for a week," Zack said calmly. The Turk looked at him, growled a little, but backed off. Zack smiled in appreciation.

"I cannot express how sorry I am," Rufus replied to her rant. Zack snorted and heard tifa yell at him some more. Finally he heard something thrown and a yelp. The door opened and Tifa looked up at Zack expectantly.

"Can we please get out of here?" she asked quietly. Zack nodded and they heard chuckles from down the office hallways.

"Hey, Reno. I won the bet," Elena yelled down the hall.

"What? They broke up already!" Reno called back. Zack laughed when he heard the roar of the office, and Tifa gave out a small chuckle. They arrived at the garage and Tifa looked up at him.

"What was that slapping incident with the blonde about?" she asked him. Zack chuckled again and looked at her sheepishly. He shrugged.

"I told her I didn't go on the date because I forgot," he admitted. Tifa snorted and smiled at him.

"You deserved it," she said as she got into the car. They argued the whole way home.

Chapter End.