Disclaimer: I do not own any character in any shape or form. They belong to Square Enix :)

Author's note: Thanks to those who have reviewed! Or just simply read this :D Oh pretty important notice guys! I won't be able to update this until August 15 because I have been procastinating on my summer homework for AP English so I have to start on it now. Anyways I give you guys this chapter :D I hope you'll love this for now.


Popularity Feud

Chapter 11

It's been a week since Sephiroth came to my apartment out of the blue and spent the night with me. And by spent the night, I'm talking about me falling asleep on him absentmindedly. Of course, he always picked me up in the mornings and sometimes takes me home afterschool. Texting is our usual form of communicating, aside from normal conversations in his car, Chemistry class and English class.

Today, I went to his house after school for the first time without being forced. We had to work on both our Chemistry and English projects. The reason why we chose to go to his house instead of mine was because his father has an underground laboratory that would help with the project. Sephiroth decided to work on the English project first, which was to create our own story that included satire, oxymoron, hyperbole, pun, and onomatopoeia. Normally, I would be able to make this myself, but the teacher insisted on giving us a pair to work with. I intended to work with Cloud, but when the teacher asked Sephiroth who he wanted to work with, he said my name. This caused Cloud to look at him with anger, and at the same time, confusion.

"So what kind of story should we make?" Sephiroth asked, pen and paper in hand. He looked at me as if I had the answer written all over my face.

"Well how about a Tragic/Romance kind of novel?" I asked, completely unsure of what to say. Truth is, I do not bode well working on projects with a group or a partner.

"A romance novel?" He chuckled then looked at me with amusement in his eyes. Implying that I was some sort of hopeless romantic freak.

"A romance and tragic novel," I repeated clearly infuriated. This is the reason why I never really liked working with other people. He tried to stifle a laugh and I crossed my arms angrily.

"Romance/Tragic novel it is then," He smirked at me and started jotting down ideas for our project. I looked at him with widened eyes when he agreed to it. I never thought he would accept it, let alone write down ideas for it. I smiled and started to write down my own ideas as well.

"If I get a horrendous grade for it, I'm blaming it all on you," He added lastly, looking at me with mirth in his eyes. Of course, he had to ruin it.

"Don't worry, I'll fail it too and you'll still be the top student," I added, patting him on the back and rolled my eyes afterwards. He smirked and continued writing. Looking at him work so diligently fascinates me, maybe that's the reason why he got to the top. Smiling to myself, I continued to work as well…never catching the small smile that formed on his lips.


I brought her down to my father's Laboratory and by the looks of it, she was amazed. Tifa kept on walking around freely with her mouth agape and eyes widened. I couldn't help but chuckle at her expression. She looked at me gleefully before dragging me around and asked where we would work. I lead the way to small room, which was mine, and opened the door.

"Whoa, is this really your own room?" She asked, flabbergasted. I nodded and waited for her to walk in before shutting the door behind me.

"Well then, shall we?" I asked, walking towards the cabinet that had the chemicals we need for the project which was to record chemical reactions. We had to identify the 5 signs of chemical reactions and to create a lab report once we were done.

"It must be really awesome to have a father as a scientist huh?" She turned to look at me, while tying her hair up in a bun and wearing her lab coat. I did the same with my own hair and took out my lab coat from the closet. I handed her a pair of goggles which she took happily. Looking at her so happy makes me feel stuff I haven't felt before, the feelings I had were so foreign that I do not know what to do about it.

This past week, as little our communication might be, was so far… the best week of my life. Whenever I picked her up from her apartment, she would always flash me a smile that made me feel warm inside, as if a fire was being lit. Whenever I got a message from her, I would smirk to myself and reply instantly. And whenever she fell asleep on the phone, I would worry if she was alright without knowing it. This girl… what is she doing to me…?

"If you think of it that way," I shrugged and sighed.

"What's wrong?" She adjusted the goggles to fit her perfectly. Her eyes were worried and I couldn't stop looking at her wine orbs.

"It's nothing," I lied. Apparently, it's been a struggle trying to lie to her. I don't know why, but I'm struggling to keep up this façade. Was my father truly right? No… I will not accept the fact that I will be weakened by a woman, and prove my father right.

She looked at me for a brief moment before we started the experiment. Did my eyes deceive me or was she sad? The whole experiment was quiet with the exception of simple orders and such. Truthfully, the silence was maddening…


Sephiroth and Tifa walked up stairs towards the living room, where they were greeted by Professor Hojo and Jenova. Tifa blinked, surprised to see his parents there, waiting for them. It didn't matter how Tifa was surprised about it, Sephiroth was extremely agitated to see them together waiting for them. He knew what was to happen and he didn't like it one bit.

"Ah, you must be Tifa," Jenova spoke, approaching her and taking Tifa's hands into hers, shaking it.

"Y-Yes, I am. You must be Sephiroth's mother…" Tifa trailed off, embarrassed to not know her name while she knew hers. She mentally told herself that Sephiroth would get an earful once they're alone.

"Jenova," She said and Tifa nodded, her cheeks were painted red. Hojo approached them and smiled at Tifa. Tifa merely looked at him, scared because she did not know what to say to him.

"Hello, Tifa. It's nice to see you again," Hojo said while smiling. Sephiroth on the other hand wasn't pleased at all.

"You saw her this morning Father, or did you forget?" Sephiroth spat in his venomous tone, causing the woman beside her to frown and she nudged him with her elbow. Sephiroth glared at her and growled. Unbeknown to the young couple, the older ones snickered to themselves upon noticing the small exchange that happened.

"Oh yes, that's right. You young couple want to have some time alone, yes?" Hojo teased, making the blush on Tifa's face darker and Sephiroth shooting daggers at him.

"We didn't mean to disturb or anything, I merely wanted to see my lovely son's girlfriend," Jenova said, a smile was formed on her lips. Tifa looked at her and noticed where Sephiroth and his brothers got their features. She noticed how silky her silver hair was and stared in amazement. She got elbowed on the side by Sephiroth who gave her a glare that almost said 'Stop-staring-you-idiot'.

"Oh I'm not lovely at all," Tifa said.

"Now that we're done with introducing ourselves, Tifa and I have to go to my room," Sephiroth gave a small bow and stalked off towards his room. Tifa who was left alone and unsure what to do, looked back and forth then bowed towards his parents and ran off after Sephiroth.

Jenova dropped her smile once the couple were gone and looked at Hojo, who still held his smile in place.

"She seems like a nice girl. It's too bad that she's being used."

"Hmmm, we shall see."

"What do you mean?" She turned her head to look at him. He looked back, his eyes reassuring and his smile widened.

"Can't you see that he's slowly starting to fall in love? He's clearly embarrassed," Hojo said, chuckling.

"Oh so that explains his behavior. Well then let's hope you're right, yes?" She said, her smile back in place.

"But no matter how you look at it, they do look good together."

"I agree."


"Sephiroth! I can't believe you were so mean towards your parents!" I exclaimed inside his room, panting from my run. He said nothing, his back was not good at conversations either. Trust me, I know, the whole experiment was boring that I was about to rip my hair off.

"I mean seriously! That was just disrespectful—"

"Do you want to go on a date with me?"

"W-What?" I asked, completely taken back by what he said. Was I imagining things? Did he really say what I heard him say? Part of me wants it to be true, and another part wants it to be a lie.

"I said… Do you want to go on a date with me?" He turned to look at me, his eyes were calm and his words true. I blushed, my cheeks deep red. My heart was thumping and it worsened when he approached me slowly, his hand taking mine in a gentle way. His thumb caressed it slowly and carefully.

"I-I…" I looked at him, completely mesmerized by his eyes. His mako green eyes were captivating, the way it looked in the light was just… breathtaking. I have never noticed it before, never noticed the emotions held inside it.

"You?" He repeated.

"I will," I said in a low tone, too embarrassed to say it.

He pulled me in, holding me in his grasp as he slowly wrapped his arms around me in a hug. Ever since that day he confessed, our forms affection only consisted of a hug, nothing more, and nothing less. But his hug, it held so many things to it that I could not decipher. It was a tight hug, but not tight enough to break me. It was a hug that seemed as if he never wanted to let go, to be trapped in this time forever. To forget everything, the past, the future and only focus on the present.

I closed my eyes, allowing myself to be engulfed in his warmth. Wrapping my arms around him, I leaned on him, taking in his scent. He smelled wonderful, his scent wasn't tainted with the strong odor of the perfume most of the teenage males wore. It was comforting, natural and masculine. I wanted to stay in this hold forever.

Once the warmth left me, my eyes shot open in sadness. I loved that warmth, the warmth that kept me safe. His hands fell down on his sides and he looked at me with wide eyes. As if he touched something that burned him, I looked back at him, confused to such reaction. The moment I did, his widened eyes disappeared and were replaced by his regular ones, as if hiding something from me.

"Do you want to stay the night?" He asked nonchalantly. Raising my brows, I looked at him if he was serious to find that he was.

"You have a guest room right?" I asked, hoping that he did not want me to sleep in his room. Oh how was I wrong. He smirked.

"Yes, plenty. But why waste a room when you can sleep here?" He teased, causing shivers to go up my spine. I looked at him, biting my lip violently. Sighing I gave up, knowing that the only thing that would greet back home would be the emptiness and cold air.

"Fine, but I sleep on one side and you the other." I sat on the bed and kicked off my shoes and took off my socks. "Do you have anything I could wear?"

"Hmmm, it would be best if you just wore your underwear," I threw a pillow at him, causing him to laugh as he blocked it. I fumed and crossed my arms. He walked towards his closet, took a pajama shirt and threw it towards me. I caught it and examined it, it was large enough to cover my body but I still need to wear something to cover my underwear.

"Um.. can you give me the bottom part?"

"It's too big for you," He replied while showing it to me. He was right, it was too big for me. "Unless you want to wear my boxers that would be good enough."

"Uh…" I walked towards him, opened one of his drawers, the ones that had his underwear in it. He blushed as he saw me rummaging through his undergarments, after what seemed like ages, I found an unopened pair of boxers. I took the packet it was in and smiled in satisfaction. Yup, if I were to wear his boxers, I'd rather wear unused ones. "I'm using this one."

"Suit yourself," He chuckled. When I asked for a towel, he grabbed one from the closet and threw it towards me, epically landing on my face. He chuckled and left the room to prepare dinner.

When he came back, I was fully dressed in his shirt and boxers which now belonged to me. He brought in the tray that had both our dinner and a pitcher of iced lemonade. We ate while discussing about politics, and how our groups were. Pretty much the same thing happened the first time we ate together in my apartment. And surprisingly, he can cook well too! We watched TV for a couple of minutes before retiring for the night. I stayed on my side of the bed, looking at the opposite direction from him. I couldn't sleep at all, so I turned a little bit to look at the ceiling. Nope still not sleepy. Sighing deeply, I begrudgingly turned to face him, I squeaked when I saw him looking back at me.

"Can't sleep?" He asked, his silver hair falling down his face. I shook my head and brought the blanket up to my face, hoping that it would cover the blush that was painted on my cheeks.

"Nope. You can't too?" I asked. He shook his head in reply. Silence hung in the atmosphere and it was nerve wracking.

"Hey." He finally spoke after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah?"

"I just want to let you know… I wasn't being disrespectful at all towards my parents…" He trailed off. "I was just embarrassed because I have never introduced a girl to them before… especially my mother."

I smiled and grabbed his hand that rested between our pillows. Squeezing it, he looked at me in groggy green eyes. "I understand."

"Good to know. Good Night… Tifa," He said before closing his eyes. I closed my eyes, still smiling as I let go of hand. He took my hand and squeezed it.

"Good Night, Sephiroth," I said before drifting off to sleep.


Author's note: The next chapter will be the date! I hope you guys can wait that long! :D Did ya like it? Did ya? Anyways I hope you guys can still stick with me till August 15th!

I think Sephy's starting to like Tifa. Do you? It could just be teenage hormones.. I mean she is his first girlfriend! And for a bad reason nonetheless anyways review please! ^_^