"So how many guys have you dated?" Cissnei asked as she spread paint samples out on the floor. Everyone was so exhausted from all the moving. It was 8:30 PM and it was hard to believe that this was going to be the first night in the new house. It would be strange not being in the apartment tonight. There had been a lot of progress made today however in the final load Zack and Cloud realized that they had forgotten to bring the bed frames over which left their mattresses on the floor and they had also forgotten to go to the storage unit of Tifa's to pick up three more pieces of furniture. It was alright, it could wait for tomorrow. This was turning out to be an entertaining evening. There was a 50 inch TV still in the box and countless paint samples laying everywhere.
"I've only dated Zack." Aerith said sorting some more samples out in front of her.
"Are you serious! Does that mean he's the only guy you've slept with also?" Cissnei asked a bit surprised by this.
"Yes." Aerith said pushing the paint samples aside and opening a box of bread sticks in front of her. Cissnei and her boyfriend had decided that instead of going out for dinner it would be more fun to have pizza delivered; not to mention they were all too tired to go out anyway. Pizza was something that didn't require dishes and it was the perfect way to christen this house. They all must have been starving when they placed this order because they were sitting around three pizzas, one order of breadsticks and one order of buffalo hot wings.
"Oh, Aerith I can't believe he would do that to you! Take a sweet virgin girl like you and absolutely ruin you and your precious bloodline!" Cissnei said. Zack was in the other room sorting paint samples. Tifa and Cloud laughed at Cissnei.
"I heard that in there! You're mean Cissnei! Aerith, will you bring me some more pizza?" Zack called to her from the other room.
"Hold on a minute." Aerith said.
"Zack do you want to tell us how many women you've slept with?" Cissnei yelled at him.
"Hey…that is…that is not important right now. Let's talk about you Cissnei." Zack yelled back at her.
"He thinks it's some big secret I'm keeping from Riko." Cissnei said referring to her boyfriend.
"She's been through half the SOLDIER floor Riko! I bet it's like…like throwing a hotdog down a hallway." Zack yelled again. They were all laughing at Zack. Aerith just shook her head and got up to go get Zack's paper plate. Thank god the delivery guy had left some paper plates.
"First of all four is not half the SOLDIER floor and secondly Zack, if it weren't for Aerith you would still be fucking anything in a skirt. Okay, I want to bother Tifa now." Cissnei said. Her boyfriend Riko, Cloud and Tifa were still laughing at her.
"Okay, okay…let me get it together here. I'll make this easy for you. It's just been me and Cloud." Tifa said. Cloud put his arms around her.
"I don't know which one of you are more precious, Tifa…you or him." Cissnei shook her head.
"Oh my god! I just found a paint sample called 'cloud'! Cloud, you and Tifa should paint your room this color! Then, when people come over here and ask what color your room is…you can say…it's cloud and it would be you!" Zack said excitedly. "Oh my god! I wonder if there is one called Zack? Would that kick major ass or what? That would be a totally hot color if there was a Zack."
"Yes, because that's the first things house guests ask when they come over…what is your wall color." Cloud said sarcastically.
"I can't believe Aerith puts up with that…let alone sleeps with it." Cissnei said. Aerith hadn't come back into the main living room yet; she was in the other room sitting on the floor and eating with Zack. The sectional sofa was covered with a paint drip cloth and the table was piled high with stuff so Cissnei, her boyfriend, Tifa and Cloud were in the floor in the living room. It was also interesting because Aerith had lingerie hanging all over the place since she was so concerned about wrinkles…none of them had ever eaten pizza surrounded by lace and satin.
"It's all echo-y in here. Can you hear my voice echoing?" Zack asked from the other room.
"That's fascinating Zack!" Cloud yelled back at him. He didn't really answer Zack.
"How do you two live with him? Does he do stupid shit like this all the time?" Cissnei asked.
"All the time." Cloud and Tifa said in near unison.
"You get used to it." Tifa said.
"This is a nice house. You all are lucky to have found this place. And for what it's worth, I think this would be a nice color for this room." Cissnei said pointing to one of the paint samples. Cloud shook his head.
"My inner interior designer likes that one." Cloud said. "What's it called anyway? Cloud examined the card to see what the name of this color was.
"Oh my god! This paint color is called 'fair'! Oh my god, this is my color!" Zack yelled from the other room. "Oooooh wow…I'm awesome!"
"Zack, since you are obviously just playing in the paint samples why don't you come back here and actually make yourself useful. Come help pick out colors so we know what to buy tomorrow." Cloud suggested.
"What if I want to paint the whole house fair?" Zack asked him.
"We're not painting the house fair, Zack! Now get in here!" Tifa yelled at him. "Oh and while I'm thinking about it we need to have a new rule for the house. The rule is going to be no one has sex on the table or on the counter tops!" Cissnei and her boyfriend thought this was hysterical.
"Oh Tifa! Come on now! Just because Cloud doesn't know what he's doing doesn't mean you have to take it out on those of us that do!" Zack said loudly.
"That was an accident! I did not intend for her head to bang into the corner of the cabinet the way it did!" Cloud tried to defend himself.
"Man, you didn't scope things out first! You and Tifa both worked late that day and you were just so horny to see her and she was tearing her clothes off as fast as she could and you didn't look at the edge of the cabinetry when you picked her up and sat her on the edge of the counter. You banged her hard and I don't mean in a good way either." Zack said. Tifa couldn't stop laughing because unfortunately, Zack was actually right about this one.
"I agree with Tifa that we need to have a very strict no sex in the kitchen rule. Let's face it…it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt." Cloud said. Cissnei and Riko were still in stitches over this. Naturally, Zack and Aerith would have to walk back into the room when Cissnei was falling over in Riko's lap from laughing so hard.
"Cissnei, you're not doing it right. Get your face out of his lap until you learn what you're doing." Zack said teasing her.
"I can't believe you actually have to set a rule for this!" Cissnei said through her wild laughter.
"This is serious stuff Cissnei! Can you imagine the explanation if I would have had to take Tifa to the emergency room that night?" Cloud asked her. That made Cissnei laugh even harder. Cissnei had tears in her eyes she was laughing so hard.
"Oh my god! If you ever have us over for dinner one night or something I am so not eating on your table." Cissnei said.
"No! No! The rule! It's going to be okay Cissnei. With the rule in place you won't have to worry about what's been happening on the table or the counter." Tifa insisted.
"This is absolutely the funniest shit I've heard all day." Cissnei said.
"Should we extend the rule to the couch?" Aerith wondered.
"Wait…has anyone gotten hurt there? 'Cause I mean…if no one's gotten hurt there…its fair game." Zack said seriously. That sent Riko wailing with Cissnei.
By 10:00 that night all the paint colors had been chosen. That was the easy part. Once Cissnei and Riko had left; they made a plan to start painting the next day after the last of the stuff was moved out of the apartment. Tifa was in charge of making the list of things they would need to get the next day. The four of them sat on the drop cloth covered couch and looked around. There was stuff everywhere…it would take at least a week to get everything back in order. It was a bit overwhelming.
"We have to get this room done tomorrow so we can at least get this room back in order." Tifa said.
"You're right. Should we move anymore stuff around tonight?" Aerith asked.
"No!" Tifa, Cloud and Zack said at once.
"You have to be as exhausted as we are." Zack said to her.
"Yeah, I am." Aerith admitted.
"So, we start with this room, move to the kitchen and then head upstairs. We'll wait on that spare room down here. We have to finish the bedrooms because none of the furniture can go in there until it's done…until then it sits in the hallway." Zack said.
"I have an idea, why don't you and Aerith work on the kitchen tomorrow while me and Zack work on this living room. We'll get more done that way." Cloud suggested.
"Perfect! Alright, I'm going to bed. The first night in our new house. Cloud, we'll run the cable for this TV tomorrow. Since we ran it upstairs running it down here will be a cinch." Zack said standing up and pulling Aerith up off the couch.
"Goodnight." Tifa said.
"If you two aren't awake by 8:00 tomorrow morning one of us is knocking on your door and barging right in so be dressed." Cloud insisted.
"We'll be awake, we promise." Zack said. Cloud and Tifa sat there on the couch as Zack and Aerith disappeared upstairs.
"I'm so tired I can hardly move." Tifa said.
"Yeah, I know." Cloud agreed with her. "I can't believe you're living with me." Tifa laughed.
"I know…to think this all started with a book of stamps." Cloud looked at her.
"It did. Now here we are sitting underneath Aerith's lingerie and wondering what name we're going to put on the mailbox." Cloud said. Tifa laughed again.
"Can't say as I was thinking about the mailbox…I was wondering why that pink thing directly above us has so many hooks…but yeah, yeah the mailbox. We're going to potentially have a lot of names on that box." She said. "Hey, what time is it now?"
Cloud strained to see the one clock they had plugged up haphazardly in the kitchen. "It's almost 10:30." Cloud said.
"Oh my god! Come on, come on! Let's go upstairs and watch my shark show! It starts at 10:30 and there's a mini marathon tonight! Oh my god, this will be so great! We will strip down, get in our…mattress on the floor… and watch the sharks attack the cameras as they swam the divers in those cages!" Tifa said grabbing Cloud and excitedly pulling him up off the couch. Cloud laughed at her.
"I love you." He said. It was the first time Cloud had actually told her that. Cloud had once told her I think I love you. There was no think anymore…he knew he loved her. "I love you for…everything…for everything about you." Tifa let go of him and straddled her legs over him as she sunk into his lap.
"I love you too and I've known I have…for a little while but…I've just been too shy to tell you." Tifa admitted. Cloud held her against him tightly.
"Well, you don't have to be anymore." Cloud reassured her. He kissed her deeply. "Now come on, we're going to miss the beginning of your show and I know how you hate to miss the opening line of 'this week on Shark Explorer'."
"I do hate to miss the opening line." Tifa said messing blond hair with her fingers.
I'm sorry! I know it's another short chapter but it works for what I'm going for, trust me!