AN: Written for the OTP War hosted at my Livejournal. Once again, I suppose you could say it belongs in The Path To Redemption-verse.
Prompt: Vincent/Tifa, Marlene, lipstick, and Vincent's face.
The color of envy isn't green.
The door to Seventh Heaven opens as Cloud approaches it. A short red cape blocks him, briefly.
Cloud nods an acknowledgment. "Vincent."
"Cloud," Vincent says, and returns the nod. As he brushes past, his cowl slips down long enough for Cloud to see Vincent's either been in the strawberries again or smacked hard by Tifa. Once inside, after he's closed the door behind him, Cloud laughs to himself at the thought of both.
The first floor of Seventh Heaven is empty—Tifa's usual spot behind the bar deserted—but Cloud's not surprised. It's four in the afternoon and the dinner crowd won't start trickling in for another hour. Time enough for a quick shower, he thinks, and heads upstairs.
He finds Tifa in the bathroom, standing at the sink and scowling into the mirror. She jumps when she hears him in the doorway, then laughs weakly and starts wiping at her face with a hand towel.
Cloud frowns. "What happened? Something wrong?" he asks.
"Oh. It's nothing," she mumbles from behind the towel. "Marlene thought it would be fun to play make-up today. Whole works...shadow...liner...mascara...even lipstick."
"Oh yeah?" Cloud's intrigued. He rarely sees Tifa in lip gloss, let alone— "Lipstick?"
"Mmhmm. Cheap stuff. Already thrown it out. Smears like crazy and hard to get off. See?" Tifa moves the towel and points to her mouth.
Cloud does see. She looks like she's either been in the strawberries or—
"Did, uh, Marlene happen to put any of that stuff on Vincent?" Cloud asks.
"Vincent? You've got to be kidding," Tifa says. She makes a few passes with the towel again, then laughs as she examines her still-ruddy mouth in the mirror. "Can you imagine?" she asks.
But Cloud finds he doesn't have to. He's already seeing red.
Comments are appreciated!