AN: This chapter lays the groundwork for many things to come. I can promise that next chapter has a lot more interaction between the main pair ;)
Chapter 11: Looking back at these friendships I've had
It was the best kind of day. The sun was shining, but a little breeze of wind prevented the weather from being too hot. School had ended what felt like eons ago, but they still had most of the summer ahead of them. And most importantly, it was only Wednesday and most of the sunbathers were somewhere else. Roxas, Hayner, Pence and Olette had the large grass field of their nearby park mostly to themselves. Only a lone lady sat on a nearby bench feeding the pigeons.
They had spread their blankets in the far off corner of the park, just in case if the nearby kindergarten decided to take the kiddies out of their playground to the park. Olette and Hayner were laying on one of the blankets and Roxas and Pence sat on the other eating chocolate-chip-cookies.
Many moments passed in a relaxed silence, but finally Olette opened her mouth. "You know what would be nice?" she asked and turned to look at Roxas and Pence who scavenged through the bag of cookies.
"A cookie?" Pence offered and offered the bag of cookies to her.
Olette just shook her head. "No. I want some ice cream!"
Pence shook his head. "But we have eaten ice cream every single time we have met. I'm sick and tired of ice cream. Have a cookie instead," he said and waved the bag in front of her invitingly. She shook her head again and Pence gave the bag to Roxas instead.
Hayner sighed and everyone turned their attention to him. "You know what would be even nicer?" he asked.
"More cookies?" Pence replied and this time threw the bag to Hayner. It hit the boy to the leg and some of its content ended up on the blanket.
Hayner laughed. "Well yeah, that too. But it gets boring after a while. I think we should get something to do."
"Aw come on, it's way too hot to do anything," Roxas said, shaking his head. He closed his eyes. He was content like this.
"Well, we could get water pistols and shoot each other. That'd be refreshing," Hayner pointed out.
This time it was Olette's turn to shoot the suggestion down. "Where are we going to get water? I know you took some water pistols with you, but it's no fun if they run out in five seconds," she said, but Hayner cut her out.
"We can do something else."
Olette glared at Hayner. "And second of all, you said you had only have three water pistols. It's no fun if someone has to sit out. I don't feel like finding a place to buy one more. Too much effort."
Hayner sighed. "You're right. Cookies it is," he said and got up to reach the bag of cookies next to him.
Roxas watched as Hayner stuffed the cookies into his mouth. "You know what would be the really nice?" He asked, and turned quickly to Pence. "If you answer even more cookies I'm going to hit you."
Pence just shrugged. "Less cookies?"
"Yeah, real funny," Roxas said, but didn't act his threat out, just shook his head.
"Roxas…" Olette sounded upset and Roxas felt a bang of regret. They had gone thought the matter too many times now. It looked like she'd guessed what he was about to say. "I understand that you're upset about it, but there's nothing we can do. We didn't have anything to say about our families' vacation plans and it was just a coincidence that all of us are away the same week."
"Conspiracy, I tell you!" Hayner yelled and Olette scowled at him. Hayner shut up and continued his cookie consumption.
"Hey, I'm serious. What am I going to do when you guys are not here to entertain me?" Roxas said. Of course he only half meant it, but even that was too much. He'd still have The Game and Sora if he needed someone to talk to, but without his gang he'd most likely just stay indoors 24/7 and do nothing more than surf the net all day long.
Pence crawled over to the othe blanket and took the bag of cookies from Hayner. He turned the empty bag upside down and shook it. Nothing came out. "I'd say 'eat cookies' but we just ran out of them."
"Thank goodness. I was getting tired of your one track mind," Hayner said.
"Don't be so mean. You ate at least half of them," Pence muttered and threw the bag back to Hayner. In no time it had turned into a weird game where they tried to get the bag stay with the other.
Roxas just looked at them. He honestly had no idea what he was going to do, but to gather moss in front of his computer. Here he was with his friends… feeling lonely? It was only a matter of few weeks. He'd be just fine. He had the Game and he had his new guild. Everything would be fine.
xxx
The phone was ringing. Axel ran through the rooms listening to the sound and trying to remember where he had left the damn thing. The sound would die any second now and finding the phone after that would be a pain in the ass. Luckily for him, he located it on the table before that happened.
"Who is it?" Axel asked right away and threw himself on the couch nearby. He crossed his legs and placed them on the table among dishes from yesterday. Some cleaning to do in the near future, he noted to himself.
"Hi, Axel. I'm going out to enjoy the summer. Care to join me?" Saïx voice through the phone asked, yes, there was a tint of amused to his voice. "I'll recommend you try to clean up the mess there. I almost got tired of waiting and called Larxene instead."
Axel snorted. "Yeah, right. You have no right to assume I haven't cleaned my place in days." Or in weeks. Axel looked around and saw a few days worth of dishes, but it wasn't that bad, not really. "As far as you know, I could have been hoping that you'd call somebody else. Don't assume you company is always wanted."
"Okay, then I'll have to call Larxene. What is it with you two anyway? I mean, it's been weeks already and you haven't gotten over whatever happened. I wouldn't be surprised if she'd tell me tonight. If you force me to ask her instead of you, that is," Saïx threatened.
"She won't," Axel shook his head though the gesture was useless. At first it had seemed a miracle that Larxene hadn't told anybody the whole story, but Axel had soon come to the conclusion that she was afraid the sympathies would be on Axel's side this time. Making somebody do something stupid while drunk was okay as long as the marks wouldn't be life altering, and tattoos really didn't fall into that category.
Saïx let a frustrated sigh. "Fine, keep your secrets if you want to. All I want to know is if you're going to join me or not. What are you going to say?"
Axel didn't feel like going. Even thought Saïx was probably a much safer companion than Larxene had been, the thought of losing control over himself wasn't tempting. At all. He'd had enough of it for a lifetime. Axel knew his drinking patterns. He'd say he'd have a bottle or two, but that would never be enough to satisfy him in the end. Eventually, he'd drink far more than his poor brain would handle and do something he'd regret, again. It wasn't like the Larxene-incident was the first one. Worst, but not the first. Axel sighed. Was there really anything he might do that would exceed the stupidity of the tattoos?
"Axel?" Saïx had grown bored waiting. "It's not a hard question unless you're trying to come up with excuses. Which would be the first one for you." Saïx laughed and Axel decided to chuckle along.
Axel needed to think something up and fast. Maybe work. It was always a valid reason to skip drinking. "I can't come tonight. Sorry, have to make a living," Axel refused the invitation. He checked the time, ten to six. Saïx was early with his request.
"Today's Saturday. You said you had the weekend free at the meeting," Saïx pointed out.
Damn his friends who knew when he had work and when he didn't. He could say that Tifa had asked him in on some extra time? Saïx would never buy it. Axel tried to be creative. He had to come up with something better very quickly now. Something that sounded like something he wouldn't want to give away as the first excuse. Something that Saïx would be satisfied with... He might lie he had some company with him right now. There would be stupid rumours about it, but they were old enough not to descend to the ha-ha-schoolgirl-with-a-crush-level. One night stands were something that did exist. And Axel wasn't that unpopular. In no time he had an almost thought-out plan.
If Saïx wasn't swallowing the excuse about work, so be it. Time to move on to the plan b. "It's not work," Axel stated boldly, waiting for an offended tone, he had been caught from a lie, but luckily for him, Saïx misread the situation.
There was an amused snigger. "I guess you had no idea it's Saturday. Should have realised earlier. A Friday without a need to be early up in the morning? Only one way for you to use it," Saïx said and then outright laughed. "You hide your hangover pretty good from your voice."
Axel was truly honoured. He knew he was a good liar, but to be believed even before he had had the time to tell the actual lie? That was skill. "I don't really feel like drinking anything today," Axel admitted and hid his amusement from his voice.
"The Axel I called knows the best medication for hangovers is a new load of alcohol," Saïx remarked. "Yesterday must've been rough."
Axel couldn't stop grinning as he continued exaggerating his story. "You can't even imagine." Yesterday hadn't really been that interesting. He had taken the morning easy, watching TV and eating ready-made-microwave-food for lunch. Axel knew how to make food, he really didn't set the whole place in fire while cooking, but laziness won once in a while. He hadn't bothered cleaning the place like he should have been doing and had planned. In the evening there had been work and after that… nothing. And a part of Axel wanted the story Saïx was creating in his mind right now to be true.
"Well, I'll pester you some other day," Saïx stated before hanging up. Axel sighed from relief. He'd managed the impossible. What made him afraid, though, was the fact that this wouldn't be the last time somebody wanted to ask him out to a drink or two. That was what everybody was used to do. And Axel wasn't plain out saying he'd lost his appetite for liquors for life. Only Axel's liver was grateful. The rest of him was trying to understand the consequences of this decision. His social life was officially dead.
Axel sat on the sofa for a while, held the phone in his hands and looked around. The place had gotten a bit messy, it was a fact that couldn't be missed. The mugs of coffee had started to multiply like rabbits. Some vacuuming might even be a good idea. And that was what Axel decided to do. He had some extra time on his hands now, after all.
There wasn't anybody he could call who wouldn't tell Saïx that his hangover wasn't that bad after all. Expect Roxas, but that would be somewhat creepy. He didn't know the kid well enough. Sure, he wasn't anywhere near as bad as he had first thought. They might even end up friends, but at the moment, too soon to call him and explain how lonely he'd gotten. Yeah, the thought did make Axel a bit depressed. He really didn't have anybody else but his drinking-buddies.
xxx
The evening in the Game had gone better than ever. It had also been the best time Roxas had had in The Game so far. Who knew that being a villain was so much fun? He had first hesitated killing someone smaller and weaker than he was, but the uneasiness had soon been gone. They were talking about pixels after all.
The group he had found – no, been found by – was interesting. The second time playing with them had made him determined to keep playing with them, no matter what sacrifices it took. Life as an evil white mage was so much more interesting and entertaining. He was now fully ready to step up to the challenge. When there wasn't a group of powerful good guys ready to challenge them the guild came up with something interesting, and usually very risky, to spend their night with. And it was Roxas' job to get them out of it alive. It was a challenge, seeing how self-destructive almost every one of them was, but it wasn't too hard. He just needed to keep his eyes open.
This particular day had started out normally and before Roxas had known, they were on the just-built continent to find the new and rare monsters just for the sake of finding them first. Unfortunately, there hadn't been the time to find all of them before many had to leave, work early in the morning, or some personal reasons they weren't sharing. There was no point continuing with only the half of the group present and Xemnas had called it a day.
That's why, at the early hour of eleven PM, Roxas closed his computer and stretched his aching muscles. He'd need to get new chair if he was going to keep having several hour long gaming sessions like this in the future. Roxas spun around a few times in the chair before his stomach decided to make itself known. Low growling sound informed him that he'd need to get something to eat before his body would shut down.
Roxas got to the kitchen only to open the fridge and find it empty. There were no leftovers to warm up or anything to put on bread. The only thing in the fridge was two litres of milk, but that wouldn't keep Roxas' hunger at bay. "Sora, have you eaten all the food?" Roxas yelled, wanting the other boy to go and get something from the store, but no answer could be heard. "Sora?" Roxas yelled again, but still no answer. "It was your turn to fill the fridge," Roxas muttered as he banged the fridge door shut. There was no other choice but to go and buy something himself. But first he would call Sora and complain.
His phone waited him on the table with the surprise of the week. Roxas had gotten almost twenty calls from no other than Riku.
Why would Riku call him? Actually, why would Riku call him eighteen freaking times? While Roxas stared at his phone in disbelief it rang again. Riku was calling him for the nineteenth time.
Roxas stared at the phone for a moment before he realised that he maybe should finally answer it. If Riku, who hated Roxas' guts, called him again and again... It had to be something really important and Roxas would later regret not answering the phone.
"Hello?" he asked without even playing to be happily surprised by the calls or the caller
"Thank god, you finally answered. What took you so long? I've called you-" Riku started whining, still managing to sound relieved at the same time. "Oh, whatever your reason I don't care. Are Kairi and Sora there?" Riku's voice sounded now more worried than Roxas had ever heard and every single witty response to the earlier complaints died.
It was utterly unusual for Riku not to know where Sora and Kairi were. Actually it was more than unusual, it was unheard of. "Calm down," Roxas said even thought he was getting worried too. "Neither one of them is here, I'm all alone."
Unfortunately Roxas couldn't put Riku's panic down. "You were my last chance. I've called every single one any of us knows and no-one has heard from them after yesterday. Where are they? We were supposed to meet three hours ago but they didn't show up. Then you didn't answer my calls and neither of them pick up. I was actually going to come there to see if Sora's still home, but if he's not there I don't know what to do," Riku was talking almost too fast for Roxas to have time to understand what the words meant.
"I already told you to calm down," Roxas tried to soothe Riku, with poor results. "What could've happened to them? I mean, both of them know how to keep themselves safe."
"No, they can't. Kairi could have gotten kidnapped; she's such a sweet girl. Oh god, Kairi could have gotten kidnapped and now Sora's there, trying to save her from unthinkable evil–"
Roxas had to cut Riku's worrying out. "Look, I know you're scared and stuff, but Sora is almost an adult. He can take care of himself and Kairi. No, Kairi will keep them safe. You know she won't allow anything to happen to them." He left the bit about Kairi keeping Sora's stupid ideas at bay out. Riku had seen Sora in his full speed and reminding him of everything Sora has done in his life might not be the way to calm him down. "You know, you can come here. I'm sure Sora will show up sooner or later and you want to be here to scold him. We might be able to come up with where they have disappeared if we think together. How does that sound?"
The time before Riku arrived Roxas used for cleaning and other idle moving, just so he wouldn't need to think of what might've happened to Sora. While talking with Riku, he had been the one not to panic, they needed someone to keep their heads and acts together, but that didn't mean that he wasn't worried about the whereabouts of his cousin.
It was up to Roxas to fix this. What they didn't need now was Roxas' mum running around in worry and calling the police, mounted policemen and border guards. Without her everything could be taken care in silence. Roxas didn't need her to be there and anxious about every little thing. He did miss the certainty, the way she'd say everything would be all right and then it would really be so. Alright and safe.
After ten minutes Roxas had gotten the living room table more clean than it had been in as long as the boys had lived there. And it still wasn't enough; he was wiping it for the third time when the doorbell rang. Roxas ran to the door ready to welcome Riku in.
It was Sora. Roxas stared at smiling Sora and Kairi in awe. They were all right after all. After a long moment where Roxas just stared Sora cleared his throat. "Do I have something in my face?"
All of Roxas' worry turned into anger. "Where have you been? Do you have any idea how worried both Riku and I have been?" he yelled, not worrying about how his voice echoed in the stairway. Both Sora and Kairi winced at how loud the noise was.
"Let's get in, shall we," Kairi said, grabbed Sora by his hand and led him inside. Roxas slammed the door behind them. He was seething with rage and Sora was going to get what was coming to him.
"You have better have a good explanation why you're out at this hour and why didn't I or Riku know about it," Roxas pointed out and sat on the couch, arms crossed. Sora opened his mouth to provide an answer, but the doorbell cut him off. Roxas rolled his eyes. "Riku's here and he's even more worried than I was. So why won't you open the door for him? I'm sure he's thrilled to see you safe."
Sora glanced at Kairi once but walked to the door. Roxas didn't turn to have a clear view of the door so he looked at Kairi instead, rising his brows questioning and demanding the excuses to be heard. Kairi sat down in the armchair opposite to where Roxas sat and raised both of her hands in a defensive gesture as Roxas kept glaring. "I know you're angry at me but please don't yell at us too badly. I know we're going to hear of it from Riku twice as bad as you could ever yell, so…" her voice trailed off as Sora and Riku walked into the living room.
Sora sat down next to Roxas, but the blond moved a few steps away from him and turned his head. Sora rolled his eyes at Roxas' reaction. "Come on, don't be so childish," Sora said and Roxas' eye twitched.
"You have no right to talk to me, not before you have explained yourself," he said without looking at Sora.
"Roxas…" Sora tried to apologise, but Roxas acted as if he hadn't heard him.
"Aren't you the one who's always so worried of what I'm doing and with who? Don't you dare to think you can just waltz in like nothing when you have worried both me and Riku sick."
Kairi stopped Sora from answering and starting a full-blown fight by putting her hand on his shoulder. "I think we need to tell them where we were first, you can have that conversation afterwards," she said and looked at Sora who just pouted.
Kairi sighed. "Looks like I have to tell this story," she said and looked around the room, finally settling at Riku's disbelieving face. She was telling the story more to him than Roxas. "It's pretty simple, actually. We were supposed to meet Riku at eight. Unfortunately Sora thought we were supposed to meet at five instead. So when he appeared on my door at ten past asking me why I was late…"
Roxas interrupted her. "Why didn't he call you?" he said and glared at Sora who just rolled his eyes. "What do you think? I didn't have my phone with me," he answered. Kairi cut the conversation before it could turn into another fight between the cousins.
"Anyway," she raised her voice and when Roxas didn't say anything she kept talking with her normal level of voice. "We decided to go to see the new animal shelter that had just opened up. We really thought it would only take around half an hour to see all the cute kittens and puppies," Kairi explained and smiled a little. "As you can see that wasn't the case. There weren't enough people to nurse all the puppies, you see, they had just gotten about hundred little Dalmatian puppies from some crazy woman who wanted to make a coat out of them."
This time it was Riku's time to cut in. "You can't be serious," he said and stared at Sora who just shrugged. "That just doesn't happen. No one is cruel enough to do that," Riku said. "Really, what were you doing?"
"At least that's what they told me," Kairi said shrugged it off. "Maybe it's the truth, maybe not. The most important thing is that the poor puppies needed our help."
"You have no idea how corny that sounds," Roxas muttered but let Kairi keep telling her side of things.
"So helped them to bathe and feed all the dogs, nothing fancier. As you already heard, Sora left his phone here so I should've called both of you, or at least informed Riku who was waiting for us. It is one hundred percent my bad, so please forgive me…" Kairi trailed off. The room was silent, more and more uncomfortably so.
"They were really cute puppies," Sora said after the silenced had stretched for some time.
That was the cue for Roxas to stand up. He walked to his room without out saying a word. At the door he turned and said: "You are an idiot. And an incredible sap," he said at Sora. "But I'm still happy neither of you were kidnapped."
After that he did nothing but fall on his bed, without changing to his nightwear or going to the shower. Even the hunger that had plagued him earlier had made way for exhaustion that took over his every limp in matter of seconds.
Worrying was a tiresome thing to do, especially late at night. That group of fiends would be the death of him someday.
xxx
For once the Seventh Heaven was not empty. It was not crowded either, only two men had come inside and currently sat on a lone table in the corner clearly arguing about something or other. Tifa was keeping the bar alone, Axel had once again managed to worm his way out of the day's shift. But he was supposed to do an extra one, so it was okay. It was a bit weird that he'd agreed to work extra on a Saturday. He was usually adamant about getting nothing between him and Fridays with friends… It wasn't her business to understand Axel, Tifa decided and turned back to the papers in front of her. She was still counting the bar's budget for the next month when no other than Aerith walked through the door.
"Oh hi, I wasn't expecting you," Tifa said, smiled and waved her to sit by the counter. "Don't get me wrong, there's nothing more refreshing than a surprise visit to work," she said once Aerith had taken her seat.
"I know. That's why I'm here," Aerith said. She looked around her, her eyes stopping to the two men in the corner. "It's been so long since I've seen this place. Have you done something to it? Everything seems... different, somehow," she said as her gaze travelled back to Tifa.
"Actually, I've done nothing but change the lightning," she answered. "Funny how much that changes. Do you want something?"
Aerith shook her head. "Oh, you don't need to."
"I know I don't need to. But I want to," Tifa insisted. It was truly nice to see Aerith. Maybe they'd once again be able to see as regularly as they wanted.
"Okay, if you insist," Aerith said reluctantly. "I have one apple cider."
Tifa made a face. "You walk into a bar and I offer you a free drink and you ask for something as regular as a cider? That just doesn't do," she said jokingly. Making fancy drinks was something she had learned to enjoy over the years working in the bar.
"But cider is everything I ever drink," Aerith said. "Actually, I don't know anything else. But okay, surprise me, then."
Tifa pondered for a moment what to make. On one hand Long Island Iced Tea would taste probably suit Aerith's tastes, but it contained way too much alcohol. The Mimosa would be perfect, but Tifa supposed that Aerith would freak out if she opened a bottle of sparkling wine. Therefore, the Black Orchid seemed like a perfect hit.
So Tifa just wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "You, darling, are in for a ride," she said and, as theatrically as humanly possible, took out all the ingredients. She loved the attention she got every time she did one of the less ordinary beverages. So she enjoyed every second when Aerith stared at the way she shook the drink and poured it in a glass. Just a petal from a pink chrysanthemum handily sitting on the counter and the drink was ready.
Aerith stared at her dark violet drink with disbelief. She was obviously out of words, But Tifa didn't know if it was because of horror or gratitude. She dared to hope for the latter.
Fortunately, when Aerith finally managed to speak she erased all of Tifa's worries. "Wow. This is beautiful. I don't think I can drink it," she said and just stared at her glass.
Tifa laugher in relief. "I made it for drinking. Besides it tastes better when it's cold."
Aerith dared to take a sip and her eyes lit up. "Oh. This is nice. Thank you so much!" she said and took another sip.
"Oh, you don't need to thank me. I'm just glad you like it. But be careful, no matter how good it tastes, it still has alcohol, so you can't drink them infinitely," she warned.
Aerith was just about to object, but the jingle of bells alerted both of the women to a new customer. Who was no other than Cloud. Tifa glanced at Aerith, but when she just flashed an encouraging smile Tifa waved at him. "Hi, Cloud," Tifa said, still a little reluctant.
He waved back at Tifa, but stopped when Aerith turned around. "Hello, Cloud," Aerith said.
From behind the counter Tifa could only see Cloud's face, but she could imagine Aerith's charming smile. Besides, his face was more than enough. Cloud looked like he had just sat on an ant's nest and like the bar was the last place he wanted to be. Tifa felt sorry for him. Aerith had told Tifa over the phone that she had met Cloud for the last time a day after she and Tifa had last met. Aerith hadn't told her any details, only that "nothing happened," but from the look on Cloud's face she could see it had been the most awkward thing of the century.
When Cloud wasn't able to do anything else but stare in silence, Aerith asked him to sit next to her. Unwillingly, he walked to the counter, but left one chair in between. Aerith just rolled her eyes and moved to the chair next to Cloud.
"So… Do you want your drink today to be sparkling or still?" Tifa asked, but Cloud only grunted. It sounded somewhat like "still" so Tifa gave Cloud a grapefruit juice. He took it without saying a word.
Tifa had no idea what to say. Talking about alcohol, especially about how good alcoholic drinks were, was not a sensible thing to around Cloud. Actually chatting about anything just between the two of them would be very impolite. But just sitting in silence would be pretty embarrassing. And on top of it both of the options would most likely make Cloud feel severely unwanted. In other words, they needed to talk naturally while including Cloud into the conversation. A task more easily said than done.
But someone needed to do it and since Aerith and Cloud had some previous issues it was up to Tifa to come up with something to say. And she needed to come up with it fast.
"Um... So how's Roxas?" she asked. It was the first thing from the top of her head and actually not that bad of a topic. It was something Cloud would actually talk about for more than three words.
But before Cloud could say anything Aerith cut in. "Oh Roxas, I haven't heard of him in a long time," she said and nudged Cloud. "Does he already have someone special in his life?"
This time Tifa was able to see his face. That must've been the most awkward question is was possible for Aerith to ask. Tifa almost congratulated Aerith, not everyone was able to have Mr. Stoic look like he'd seen a ghost. But as entertaining as it was to see Cloud struggling to find something to say, she felt bad for him.
"Aerith, that was not funny," she scolded her, but her whole heart was not in it and both of them could hear it. "It's not like Roxas to tell things like that to Cloud." She still wanted to send a telepathic message to her and thank her for trying to include him in the conversation. He still hadn't said a thing.
But it was too soon to say anything, as Cloud started talking. "You know, I can speak for myself," he said, surprising Tifa. So he had gotten over the initial shock.
Before Tifa could apologise for jumping to conclusions Aerith giggled. "Look, he talks!"
The men in the corner table turned to look at them. Cloud looked irritated. "I can shut up again if you want me to," he said.
Aerith slapped her hand to her mouth, but Tifa could still hear her suppressed giggles. "Sorry, you've just bee so quiet that it's a miracle that you speak. At all," she said, her hand still in front of her mouth.
"Well, you are being awfully silent today. Even more than normally," Tifa agreed even though she tried to do it as politically as she could. "It's fine though. It's enough to have you here."
Cloud crossed his arms. "Well, excuse me for not being as talky as you ladies want me to be," he said.
This time Aerith couldn't keep the laughter at bay. "I'm - I'm sorry," she said in-between of bursts of laughter. "I just can't imagine Cloud talking as much as I'd like him to."
It was pretty absurd concept. Cloud would not be Cloud if he talked as much as, say, Aerith did. The concept was more than absurd, it was downright laughable. But still, Tifa wasn't laughing, for whatever reason.
Her train of thought was cut out by the chime of the bell. She looked past Aerith and Cloud to see, who had come in, but saw nobody. Instead, the last two true customers had left.
"Oh look, we have the whole bar for ourselves," Aerith said. She waited for few seconds and turned to Tifa and smirked. "Funny. I thought that someone would come in the exact second I say there's no-one in here."
"You do realise that if someone came in I'd need to, you know, actually do my work," Tifa said playfully. She looked at the door for a while. She didn't want customers to walk in through the door now. Cloud was finally visibly relaxing and they could have so much fun just chatting the world away. Why did Aerith have to come on one of the days when Axel wasn't there? Then tifa could've just made him do all the work while she, Aerith and Cloud could've had their well deserved and long overdue night together.
She could afford closing early. She'd looked at the budget earlier today. She had money over. As the thought crossed her mind and she knew that there was only one thing to do. It was only Thursday. Weekdays would come and go, but how many times would she have the option to talk to Cloud and Aerith?
"You know, we don't need to sit here and wait for someone to ruin our night. We could go home to me house and cook something," Tifa suggested. She actually happened to have some extra ingredients for wok she was going to eat during the following week.
"You're sure it's okay?" Aerith asked a little hesitantly. "Cloud, you're going to come with us, no excuses," she said after Tifa had insisted that no, it would not cause any trouble; she'd be more than happy to and so on.
For a change, she could have an evening with her friends. Like old times.
