Chapter 10

Blowing off some steam

"Teef come on then tell me?" Cloud said shaking Tifa lightly she had been staring out at the clearing for around 5 minutes now and Cloud was desperate to know what Tifa had come up with.

"Oh sorry Cloud I was just thinking how I would word it" Tifa shrugged and rested her head on Cloud's shoulder and then began to explain her idea.

"Well the original idea has been altered slightly but what I actually thought was during a show I would announce to the world what Rufus and Hojo were doing but when I got hurt and the show has not been running and Rufus announced a bigger and better show I think on opening night that we should spill his secrets we'll choose with horses we will choose and I've had a friend of mine do blood work on the horses we've gotten of late and well the results will be in soon and well they have also gotten their hands on Mako to test the effects and well I'm getting a small sample of Mako sent over" Tifa well tried to explain but that wasn't one of her strong points.

"Wow Teef that's quite an idea it should really work" Cloud praised pressing a kiss to her forehead.

"You really think so?" Tifa asked looking up her at Cloud.

"Yeah I really think it will work Teef your really amazing" he said squeezing her tighter.

"So when will you get the results of the blood work"

"Um Vincent said he could get it done by Friday" Tifa answered

"Who's Vincent" Cloud asked puzzled

"Oh he's someone Barret knew when he was part of the police squad Vincent was in the forensics department and had a special interest in Hojo so he was more than happy to help when I had told about what I had found" Tifa explained and then it dawned on her

"What were you jealous?" she teased her fingers interlocking with his.

"Um no" Cloud said swallowing and looking anywhere but her.

"Oh you so were" Tifa teased further and pushed Cloud down further into the grass and leaned over him so he had nowhere else to look.

"I knew it" Tifa giggled as Cloud did not look her in the eye

"Alright okay I was jealous for a minute okay" Cloud admitted

"Aww now that wasn't too hard was it" she smirked closing the distance and crushing her lips to his.

After they had broke away they made their way back to the horses that had been tethered under a tree and had been munching on grass. They waited around in the clearing for sometime so that the horses had time to digest the grass they had consume after all they didn't want a horse ending up with colic or well anything else now did they. Of course they weren't board they had plenty to keep themselves busy with especially when Indi kept trying to eat. Once back on broad Tifa took Cloud a roundabout way to the natural cross country course this would help their show after all and well Ivy did have some jump in her so these natural jumps shouldn't be overly challenging and it would boost Ivy's fitness.

"Teef now I know why besides what Rufus had been up too why you haven't left the stables" Cloud called taking in the cross country course.

"Yep it's great isn't I just love it here" Tifa grinned back.

"So how do you want to do this?" Cloud asked his eyes sweeping the course once more.

"Well I would suggest that we each take a single turn and then we might try it together" Tifa suggested.

"Fine but you're going first after all I don't think Indi can really wait look at him" Cloud observed looking at Indi he was throwing his head around and practically chomping at the bit to have a go. So Tifa went first Indi clearing every jump she aimed him at even though she did get a dodgy landing at one of the ditch jumps. Indi was throwing his head around as Tifa took back down into trot and then Cloud got Ivy ready and she had a iffy start she refused the first one but after that she cleared each one and it was clear then to Tifa that Ivy may be cut out for Eventing she certainly looked to be cut out for it. When Ivy cleared the final jump Cloud had to circle her several times before she came back to him.

"Cloud I believe Ivy may have a future in Eventing if of course she hasn't got Mako running in bloodstream" Tifa suggested smiling just as brightly.

"Actually I believe your right" Cloud agreed

"You believe I'm right do you" Tifa glared at him smirking a little

"Okay your right" Cloud said almost immediately defeated.

"So do you want to try the over the jumps together?" Tifa asked after a few moments of silence.

"Um I would rather race you" Cloud said a little jokey

"Okay fine but what are we racing for what do I when I win or if you win which is unlikely what do you get?" Tifa pressed raising her eyebrow she wouldn't admit it but she was rather competitive at times. Cloud chewed his lip for a good minute at least before he came up with the prizes

"How about when I win you have to sing for me whilst wearing a silly costume and the you could tease me a little you know a strip tease or something and as for me if I were for some reason to lose then I for you will take you out to a fancy restaurant and for an entire day I'll do anything you say" Cloud suggested. Tifa thought about it for second and then decide she was alright with the agreement.

"Deal" Tifa nodded reaching out her hand, Cloud took and they shook hands sealing the deal.

They lined up several canter strides away from their starting jump and when Cloud had shouted "GO!" they both took off at a canter towards their course of jumps. They were neck and neck as they reached the second but when they reached the third Tifa took a slight lead as she had the inside bend on the corner that would take them to jump 4 but Cloud quickly drew level with her at jump 5 as he had the advantage and over took at jump 7 and looked to be winning as he entered the home straight but as he reached the second to last jump Indi and Tifa had closed the distance and as they reached the last jump disaster stuck Cloud, Ivy took off too early making for an awkward jump and he couldn't fold in time and got left behind and ended up on the woodland floor declaring Tifa the winner. When Tifa had seen Cloud hit the deck her first instinct was to leap off Indi and run to him but with Ivy still going she had to catch her first to not put their selves at greater risk and to stop another summoning to Rufus' office, Tifa had to push Indi a little harder to catch up to Ivy but she soon had caught Ivy by the reins and was thankful for wearing gloves as the speed she was going and with Ivy's reins flopping about it would of hurt to take hold of them. Quickly she took the reins over Ivy's head and made a bee line back to Cloud.

When she reached him he was already on his feet brushing off the reminding dirt that had stained his jodhpurs and the back of his shirt.

"I suppose you win then" Cloud grumbled a little sore loser like

"Aww is someone a sore loser then" Tifa teased a little

"No" Cloud defended and made his way over to her and took Ivy off her.

"We should get back to the stables you sure that you can ride?" Tifa said trying to act like she didn't care about winning when in fact she couldn't wait for Cloud to do whatever she wanted and her mind had already began coming up with different scenarios that she would have Cloud do.

"Of course I can I wasn't too badly hurt" Cloud shrugged and boosted himself onto Ivy.

Slowly they made their way back to the stables with Tifa once again taking point and she was pleasantly smiling to herself about the idea of Cloud but that smile would be wiped clean off her face when they would arrive back at the yard.

"Where the hell have you two been?" Angeal demanded furiously with his face rather red

"Sorry it's just Rufus had called us into his office this morning and it got rather heated and I just had to escape" Tifa said weakly. Angeal's eyes softened he knew exactly what she meant she had to get out if she could keep working here.

"Alright you're off the hook this once but in future I want to know where you are just in case" Angeal declared

"Okay" Tifa nodded sadly.

"So what have you two up then, the horses seemed to have worked up quite a sweat?" Angeal questioned just curious

"Well Tifa had taken me down to the cross country course and we just spent time there" Cloud shrugged like it was no big deal.

"And how did you and Ivy do Cloud?" Angeal pushed.

"She was great, I think she's cut out for Eventing" Tifa inputted.

"That good" Angeal stated more like he was thinking over what he had just been told.

At lunch Cloud couldn't keep a smirk off his face and nobody seem to know why Zack had began bugging him about it trying to guess why he was so happy even though he had just fallen off a horse and had made a deal with Tifa and had lost and didn't know what would be expected of him when Tifa would spring that day on him.

"Oh I know it's because you got some last night?" Zack asked and with that Tifa's face had gone bright red she didn't want it to be known and even Cloud's face had gone a little red at that comment.

"You did didn't you?" Aerith giggled seeing the look on the couple faces.

"Oh my god you did you actually did" she added.

"Okay can we can the subject?" Tifa snapped her checks bright red clearly embarrassed.

"Fine then where were you guy this morning?" Zack smirked

"Not doing that" Cloud snapped making Zack fall off his chair laughing.

"Grow up Zack!" Cloud shouted staring down at his cousin

"Well if you could see your face you would be laughing to" Zack argued still laughing

"Zack just give it a rest will you we know that they did it time to move on even though it's hard with the looks on their faces" Aerith giggled

Throughout lunch Zack had poked fun at Cloud and Tifa really winding them up about them having done it and stuff, he wasn't ashamed to admit it so he loved it that it was driving Cloud mad.

It was just as they were cleaning up their lunch stuff that Angeal had walked in.

"Tifa you're on foaling duty tonight, Pretty is showing signs" Angeal decreed and as quickly as he had arrived he had left.

"Great foaling duty just what I need Rufus has done this on purpose just to keep us as far apart as possible" Tifa grumbled throwing out the empty yoghurt pot.

"Teef I'll stay with you tonight anyway it will just wind up Rufus more which I love the idea of" Cloud laughed a little.

"Why don't we all stay and make it a movie night?" Aerith suggested

"Yeah why not I mean I've never been on foaling duty before and you haven't either Cloud have you" Zack added his two cents

"No but I was hoping that it would just be me and Tifa" Cloud grumbled

"Oh come on Cloud you're never apart you don't really need that much alone time do you unless you were just hoping to get back in Tifa's pants" Zack laughed

"DON'T!" Cloud snapped looking at Tifa who had tears welling in her eyes, what had been meant as a harmless joke had set Tifa into near tears.

"Oh Teef I'm really sorry I didn't mean that" Zack pleaded

"Just don't ever mention that again, you know what happened and by no means is Tifa a slut" Cloud said trying to cool his temper.

"Cloud's it's fine I know that Zack was only joking come on sweetie clam down" Tifa soothed taking Cloud's hand in hers. Cloud looked at Tifa looking for some sign that she was really okay, her eyes had soften as Cloud looked into them and a small smile graced her lips, Tifa could still see the threads of anger in Cloud's eyes so she leaned forward and kissed him, his eyes went wide but soon he responded to her lips on his, it took Zack's indiscreet throat clearing to get the couple to break away.

"Zack seriously grow up!" Cloud said shoving him playfully his anger completely diminished. Zack just grinned at Cloud

"So then are we having a movie night or not" Aerith squeaked softly

"Um I don't see why not" Tifa shrugged.