Chapter 3: A Training We Ago!
Aeris walked up to Rueben's house on Wensday, by herself. The past few days she had been resting, and preparing for today. Word got around eventually that she was going to train with Rueben. Everyone was in awe of her, and they stared at her when she walked by. Aeris didn't care. It was beautiful here, and she didn't want to seem different. Marie had purchased some seeds for her, and she was starting a garden. Aeris was hoping it would turn out just as nice as the one in Midgar.
She walked up the porch and knocked on Rueben's screen door. After a moment Rueben, open the door. He grunted and motioned her inside. Aeris opened the screen door and walked in.
"Would you like some coffee?" Rueben asked, as he poured some for himself. Aeris shook her head and watched Rueben finish his cup. He was dressed exactly the same as before. Aeris had a feeling he dressed the same every day.
"Are you ready?" he asked. Aeris nodded and stood. Rueben put on his trench coat, and a black hat. His sword was now hidden from view. He motioned for Aeris to follow him. He walked out the living room, threw a kitchen, and onto a back porch. There he began to stretch his lags.
"The first part of the training will be speed and stamina. We will run, not jog or walk, the ten miles to the training area." He said as he stretched.
"Run ten miles?" Aeris whispered in shock. Rueben nodded.
"I do it everyday on my way to the grounds. I carry a device to let them contact me if they need me, or if some one arrives. You better stretch." Rueben advised. Aeris quickly strapped her rod to her side, (compressed it was only a foot long). As she stretched she noticed Rueben watching her curiously. When she was finished he nodded.
"Let's go." He said, and began to run. Aeris quickly followed him into the woods.
*****
Cloud opened his eyes and yawned. His back felt sore from the ground he was sleeping on. He looked over at Tifa sleeping on the other side of the fire. It was dawn, and the sun was just coming up. They were about fifteen miles outside of Kalm. They had made very good time, and inspite of Cloud's jokes and comments they still hadn't slept together. Cloud didn't care. Just being with Tifa was all he really wanted. Cloud climbed out of his sleeping bag and stretched. He grabbed his pack and when to a pond to bathe and change his clothes. He looked around to make sure no one was watching and then he took off his clothes. After a brief hesitation he jumped into the cold water.
Tifa heard Cloud jump into the water from her sleeping bag. She finally opened her eyes and yawned. She climbed out of her sleeping bag and stretched. She then busied herself with getting the fire going again. When she had just started it back up she felt wet arms hug her from behind.
"You shouldn't sneak up on people like that." she murmured. Cloud chuckled, and let her go with a pat on the behind.
"Why?" he asked, and Tifa suddenly grabbed his wrist and flipped him over onto his butt. He looked over to see her laughing.
"Ha ha. I'm gonna be sore for a week now." He said with a smile. Tifa grinned and picked up her bag.
"I'm going to get cleaned up. Can you actually cook breakfast blondie?" she jokingly asked. Cloud grinned.
"I may be blond, but I'm not dumb." He said. Tifa grinned.
"I'll take that as a yes." She said and headed for the pond. Cloud stood back up and brushed the dust off his pants. He moved to pick up a nearby can of hash when he saw it. It was diamond as big as a one-gil coin. Cloud whistled and picked it up. They must have unearthed it during their scuffle. Cloud smiled and tucked it away into his pocket. He had a great idea of how to use it. Whistling, he went back to making breakfast.
*****
When they got to the training grounds, Aeris was wheezing and had a difficult time trying to get her breath. Rueben hadn't even broken a sweat. He glanced at Aeris and snorted. He then proceeded to with draw a backpack from behind him. Aeris couldn't see it before, because his trench coat had hidden it.
"I had Marie give me your sizes. You are to wear these whenever we train from now on." He said and tossed them at Aeris's feet. Aeris frowned and looked at them. They looked the same as the clothes she normally wore. When she tried to pick them up she was shocked. They were several pounds heavier! With a grunt she managed to pick them up.
"Go on. Change." Rueben said. He began to stretch while looking the other way. Aeris snorted and changed clothes. With the new clothes on it was hard for her to walk. She grunted and slowly walked to Rueben. He turned around and looked at her. When he saw the strain she was under, he shook his head.
"Now Cetra, let's begin. You are to attack me." He said. He took his sword out of its sheath and tossed it to the side. Aeris swore she heard the sword give a hum when it touched the ground.
"What? In these clothes?" Aeris asked shocked.
"Yes, Cetra, in those clothes. I wear the same type of heavy material. It makes up my trench coat and cowboy hat. I wear them everywhere I go." Rueben said with a snort. Aeris groaned remembering the thud his clothes made at the tournament when he took them off. Rueben cracked his knuckles and grinned.
"Let's begin" he said simply and attacked.
*****
Every day Monday through Friday, this continued for six months. At dusk of each day they ran the ten miles back. For the first month, Rueben had to carry Aeris back. Eventually, she was able to run back. They only time she could work on her new flower garden were during the weekends and Friday nights. On Friday they only trained for half a day, and it was nothing but deep meditation dawn till noon. Aeris also replaced all her clothes with the same type she wore for training. If Rueben could then so could she. Marie commented to Aeris one day about how buff she looked. Aeris just blushed and shook her head laughing, knowing it was true.
Aeris often would go to the local town hall where people often gave concerts. The one person was a girl named Katreena, who played the violin with and man named Boris who played the piano. On those nights Aeris closed her eyes and swayed to the beautiful music in her seat. One night when to concert was over she thought she saw a figure in black near the exit watching from the doorway. When she went to get a better look, it was gone. Also once a month, everyone stayed locked in their homes. When Marie told Aeris this on a Thursday night during her first month, Aeris frowned.
"Why Marie?" she asked. She was soaking her ankle, which she had twisted that day.
"Because a great evil comes out once a month. Everyone thinks that for all the good here, there must be a force of evil to counter it." Marie said with slight terror in her voice. Aeris snorted.
"That's just old wives tales." Aeris said. Just then an unearthly howl rang in the air. Aeris shivered as goosebumps broke out on her flesh.
"Oh," Marie said, quietly, "what was that then? And many hundred years ago, a man walked into the woods during one of these nights to prove it. We found him mangled and torn open. If we weren't already dead, he would have been. Rueben himself took care of him till he got better." Marie said. Aeris fell silent, and let the matter drop. When she tried to raise the topic with Rueben during a break, he refused to talk about it.
After a hard day of training, Rueben said to call it quits early for the day. Aeris was surprised, but she gave it no argument. She had improved so much that Rueben now had to use his sword to defend himself from her blows with her rod. He also started to sweat during their training. After the run back to the house, Rueben invited her in for coffee. He usually dismissed her with a wave and the words, "See you next time."
"We need to talk, Aeris." He said simply. He held the door open, waiting. Aeris thought about it for a moment, and then she nodded her head.
"Okay, Rueben." She said. She walked into his kitchen with him following behind. He took off his hat and coat with a sigh. After he hung them up, he went to a coffeepot, and began to fix some coffee. Aeris sat in a chair near a small table. She saw a calendar on the table. When she examined it, it had the day when fall would start. Aeris remembered that she would have to get something to protect her flowers. Aeris also noticed a circled day of each month. They marked when they all stayed inside for the night. Frowning, Aeris was about to flip to the next month when Rueben slammed his hand on top of the calendar, glaring at her. Aeris jumped and pulled back. Rueben put the calendar on top of the fridge and put a cup of coffee in front of Aeris. She sipped the coffee and looked at it in wonder. It was so good!! She quickly finished of the cup and asked for another. Rueben grunted and poured her another, leaving the pot on the table.
"So?" she said.
"So?" Rueben echoed, and sipped his coffee. Aeris began to get mad.
"Why did you invite me in for coffee?!" she practically shouted. Rueben looked shocked, and then he grinned. Aeris thought she heard him chuckle.
"Okay Cetra, I'll tell you why. I wanted to tell you mastered the first part of the training." Rueben said, and sipped his coffee. Aeris looked stunned. She couldn't believe what she just heard.
"Wh-What?" she stammered.
"You have mastered the first part of training that took me five thousand years to master."
"NO!"
"Yes. And now I'm going to offer you something."
"What?" Aeris asked suspiciously. Rueben took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Now was the moment of truth.
"I'm going to teach you how to exceed your body's limits. I'm going to teach you how to use materia to make you stronger." He said slowly. Aeris stared at him and then burst out laughing.
"What?" Rueben said, irritated.
"Oh I'm sorry, it's just that everyone knows how to use materia to cast spells and use magic."
"No, no Cetra!" Rueben suddenly shouted, "Not like that! A totally different and completely new way to use them!" Aeris jumped up and stared at him.
"A completely new way?" she whispered, and Rueben nodded.
"Look, let's go back to the training grounds. Its Thursday, and we left early anyway. I'll show you how I use it, and I'll give you till Monday to think about it, alright? No training Friday. Alright?" he said and stood up as well. Aeris thought for a moment. Even if it was a waste of time she could use Friday to tend her garden all day.
"Alright. Let's go back." She said and picked up her rod. The Rueben did something he'd never done in front of Aeris. He smiled. He didn't grin, he smiled. For some reason Aeris began to blush and hurried out the back door, and headed for the training grounds.
*****
Cloud tugged uncomfortably at the tie of the tux he was wearing. He was supposed to meet everyone in Corel for the grand reopening of the city. Barrett was supposed to have done a fantastic job of fixing it up. He had heard rumors of it looking remarkably close to Kalm. Everyone from Avalanche had received an invitation to attend a formal party to be held in the new town hall. Tifa had jumped up and down with joy and had gone that day to get a dress. Barrett had also sent them a letter asking if they would like to move there after the reopening. Cloud agreed as soon as Tifa did. Their bar in Kalm (the New Seventh Heaven) had taken off like a rocket and Tifa wanted to open another in Corel.
Cloud stopped walking and pulled a small box out of his right pocket. He opened it for the hundredth time. In side was a ring with the diamond he had found drastically carved down and reshaped into a small rose. Cloud smiled when he told the jeweler what he wanted. The man said the chips from the diamond alone would pay for everything. Cloud put the ring away and found his motorcycle at the edge of town. He had gotten it shortly after he helped convert his first Mako reactor into a geothermal reactor. They had blown up two reactors by accident trying to get it right. Tifa had nearly had a heart attack when she heard the first explosion. After that, Cloud had sent her to Corel to wait for him until the reopening. She reluctantly agreed, knowing it would be too stressful for her to be so close to where Cloud was risking his life to get a safe means of power going. After the first reactor was done, Cloud quietly resigned from the crew remodeling the reactors. Cloud climbed onto his bike and started the engine. He put on his helmet and then gunned it for Corel.
*****
Tifa began to throwing things out of her closet, mumbling. Yuffie watched in awe as shoes flew out in a steady pace. She shifted in her chair uncomfortably, her green dress irritating her. Tifa's dress lay on the bed. It was a shiny black, with a slit up the side revealing the legs. Yuffie commented in was just like Scarlet's dresses had been , only black. Tifa smiled wickedly when Yuffie said it. Now Tifa couldn't find the shoes she bought that matched. She went threw all her closets in her new home, only in her underwear trying to find them.
"You know you can just wear a different color shoes that might go with the dress." Yuffie suggested. Tifa glared at her and then continued rummaging.
"I'm not wearing my dress until I find my shoes!" Tifa snarled, and tossed out another pair. Yuiffie sighed and then grinned.
"Well, you could just go out in your underwear. I'm sure Cloud would love that!" Yuffie said, and then pair of shoes was flung at her head.
"Hey!" she shouted and ducked. The shoes bounced of the wall and landed on the bed. They moved the dress a bit and Yuffie saw a pair of shoes lying under it. She picked them up and showed them to Tifa.
"These them?" she asked. Tifa shrieked and grabbed them.
"That's them! Where did you find them?" she asked.
"Under your dress." Yuffie said and laughed. They both began to laugh, and soon they heard a motorcycle pull up. Tifa peeked around the curtain and saw Cloud get off the bike. He was just about to take off his helmet when Tifa looked away so she could dress.
Downstairs, Barrett sat with Elmyra in the hall, Cid and Shera sat in the kitchen, and the others sat in the living room, which was filled with Cloud's boxes, which he had sent earlier in the day. They were talking when the door open and Cloud walked in. They immediately stopped talking and stared at Cloud in shock. Barrett was about to say something when Tifa and Yuffie walked down. Tifa gasped as Cloud stared wide eyed at her.
"You look great Tiff!" Cloud exclaimed as he looked at her. Tifa gazed at his head like everyone else.
"What happened to your hair, Cloud?" Yuffie asked bluntly, and walked over to get a better look. His normally pointy hair was combed flat and neatly against his head. He laughed and ran a hand threw his hair.
"I went to a salon. It took them two hours to get it like this, and they said it would only last a day!" he laughed and shook his head. Yuffie reached up patted his hair. She felt all the moose they had to use to keep it down.
"I'll bet it cost a fortune!" Barrett exclaimed and everyone laughed. Everyone was dressed up. Reeve was there, since he tuned Cait Sith in to a museum. Vincent had even dressed up, sort of. He looked the same only all his clothes were black, except his scarf, which was still red, but it looked brand new. Red was freshly groomed and trimmed, but he grumbled that he had to go to a pet shop to be cleaned.
"Well, let's get going! I'm the host and I don't want to be late! Besides that babysitter gets me good for watching Marlene! I want to get home early!" Barrett said and stood up and began to head for the door.
"Wait!" Cloud shouted and everyone turned to look at him. He took Tifa's hand and tried to speak, but he couldn't. Tifa looked at him with concern.
"Cloud, are you okay?" she asked, and put a hand on his forehead. Cloud swallowed and took her other hand in his.
"Tifa.I..me and you..*cough*...we've been together a long time and.....*cough*...I mean..well I think..I mean I know.."Cloud stammered, turning red. Tifa stared at him, in wonder.
"What is it Cloud?" she asked. Cloud sighed knowing he'd never be able to say it, but needed too.
"Here." He said and pulled the box out of his pocket and got on one knee.
"Open it and you'll get the idea." He mumbled, and squeezed her hand. Tifa opened the box and saw the ring inside. Her eyes got wide and looked from the ring to Cloud to the ring, and finally back to Cloud. He grinned nervously, as everyone watched in shock.
"So what do you say Tiff? Want to get married?" he asked nervously.
"YES! OH, YES!" she cried, and Cloud jumped up and kissed her. Shera put her hand on Cid's arm and Barrett put his good arm around Elmyra. For that moment nothing else mattered, but Tifa and Cloud.
Aeris walked up to Rueben's house on Wensday, by herself. The past few days she had been resting, and preparing for today. Word got around eventually that she was going to train with Rueben. Everyone was in awe of her, and they stared at her when she walked by. Aeris didn't care. It was beautiful here, and she didn't want to seem different. Marie had purchased some seeds for her, and she was starting a garden. Aeris was hoping it would turn out just as nice as the one in Midgar.
She walked up the porch and knocked on Rueben's screen door. After a moment Rueben, open the door. He grunted and motioned her inside. Aeris opened the screen door and walked in.
"Would you like some coffee?" Rueben asked, as he poured some for himself. Aeris shook her head and watched Rueben finish his cup. He was dressed exactly the same as before. Aeris had a feeling he dressed the same every day.
"Are you ready?" he asked. Aeris nodded and stood. Rueben put on his trench coat, and a black hat. His sword was now hidden from view. He motioned for Aeris to follow him. He walked out the living room, threw a kitchen, and onto a back porch. There he began to stretch his lags.
"The first part of the training will be speed and stamina. We will run, not jog or walk, the ten miles to the training area." He said as he stretched.
"Run ten miles?" Aeris whispered in shock. Rueben nodded.
"I do it everyday on my way to the grounds. I carry a device to let them contact me if they need me, or if some one arrives. You better stretch." Rueben advised. Aeris quickly strapped her rod to her side, (compressed it was only a foot long). As she stretched she noticed Rueben watching her curiously. When she was finished he nodded.
"Let's go." He said, and began to run. Aeris quickly followed him into the woods.
*****
Cloud opened his eyes and yawned. His back felt sore from the ground he was sleeping on. He looked over at Tifa sleeping on the other side of the fire. It was dawn, and the sun was just coming up. They were about fifteen miles outside of Kalm. They had made very good time, and inspite of Cloud's jokes and comments they still hadn't slept together. Cloud didn't care. Just being with Tifa was all he really wanted. Cloud climbed out of his sleeping bag and stretched. He grabbed his pack and when to a pond to bathe and change his clothes. He looked around to make sure no one was watching and then he took off his clothes. After a brief hesitation he jumped into the cold water.
Tifa heard Cloud jump into the water from her sleeping bag. She finally opened her eyes and yawned. She climbed out of her sleeping bag and stretched. She then busied herself with getting the fire going again. When she had just started it back up she felt wet arms hug her from behind.
"You shouldn't sneak up on people like that." she murmured. Cloud chuckled, and let her go with a pat on the behind.
"Why?" he asked, and Tifa suddenly grabbed his wrist and flipped him over onto his butt. He looked over to see her laughing.
"Ha ha. I'm gonna be sore for a week now." He said with a smile. Tifa grinned and picked up her bag.
"I'm going to get cleaned up. Can you actually cook breakfast blondie?" she jokingly asked. Cloud grinned.
"I may be blond, but I'm not dumb." He said. Tifa grinned.
"I'll take that as a yes." She said and headed for the pond. Cloud stood back up and brushed the dust off his pants. He moved to pick up a nearby can of hash when he saw it. It was diamond as big as a one-gil coin. Cloud whistled and picked it up. They must have unearthed it during their scuffle. Cloud smiled and tucked it away into his pocket. He had a great idea of how to use it. Whistling, he went back to making breakfast.
*****
When they got to the training grounds, Aeris was wheezing and had a difficult time trying to get her breath. Rueben hadn't even broken a sweat. He glanced at Aeris and snorted. He then proceeded to with draw a backpack from behind him. Aeris couldn't see it before, because his trench coat had hidden it.
"I had Marie give me your sizes. You are to wear these whenever we train from now on." He said and tossed them at Aeris's feet. Aeris frowned and looked at them. They looked the same as the clothes she normally wore. When she tried to pick them up she was shocked. They were several pounds heavier! With a grunt she managed to pick them up.
"Go on. Change." Rueben said. He began to stretch while looking the other way. Aeris snorted and changed clothes. With the new clothes on it was hard for her to walk. She grunted and slowly walked to Rueben. He turned around and looked at her. When he saw the strain she was under, he shook his head.
"Now Cetra, let's begin. You are to attack me." He said. He took his sword out of its sheath and tossed it to the side. Aeris swore she heard the sword give a hum when it touched the ground.
"What? In these clothes?" Aeris asked shocked.
"Yes, Cetra, in those clothes. I wear the same type of heavy material. It makes up my trench coat and cowboy hat. I wear them everywhere I go." Rueben said with a snort. Aeris groaned remembering the thud his clothes made at the tournament when he took them off. Rueben cracked his knuckles and grinned.
"Let's begin" he said simply and attacked.
*****
Every day Monday through Friday, this continued for six months. At dusk of each day they ran the ten miles back. For the first month, Rueben had to carry Aeris back. Eventually, she was able to run back. They only time she could work on her new flower garden were during the weekends and Friday nights. On Friday they only trained for half a day, and it was nothing but deep meditation dawn till noon. Aeris also replaced all her clothes with the same type she wore for training. If Rueben could then so could she. Marie commented to Aeris one day about how buff she looked. Aeris just blushed and shook her head laughing, knowing it was true.
Aeris often would go to the local town hall where people often gave concerts. The one person was a girl named Katreena, who played the violin with and man named Boris who played the piano. On those nights Aeris closed her eyes and swayed to the beautiful music in her seat. One night when to concert was over she thought she saw a figure in black near the exit watching from the doorway. When she went to get a better look, it was gone. Also once a month, everyone stayed locked in their homes. When Marie told Aeris this on a Thursday night during her first month, Aeris frowned.
"Why Marie?" she asked. She was soaking her ankle, which she had twisted that day.
"Because a great evil comes out once a month. Everyone thinks that for all the good here, there must be a force of evil to counter it." Marie said with slight terror in her voice. Aeris snorted.
"That's just old wives tales." Aeris said. Just then an unearthly howl rang in the air. Aeris shivered as goosebumps broke out on her flesh.
"Oh," Marie said, quietly, "what was that then? And many hundred years ago, a man walked into the woods during one of these nights to prove it. We found him mangled and torn open. If we weren't already dead, he would have been. Rueben himself took care of him till he got better." Marie said. Aeris fell silent, and let the matter drop. When she tried to raise the topic with Rueben during a break, he refused to talk about it.
After a hard day of training, Rueben said to call it quits early for the day. Aeris was surprised, but she gave it no argument. She had improved so much that Rueben now had to use his sword to defend himself from her blows with her rod. He also started to sweat during their training. After the run back to the house, Rueben invited her in for coffee. He usually dismissed her with a wave and the words, "See you next time."
"We need to talk, Aeris." He said simply. He held the door open, waiting. Aeris thought about it for a moment, and then she nodded her head.
"Okay, Rueben." She said. She walked into his kitchen with him following behind. He took off his hat and coat with a sigh. After he hung them up, he went to a coffeepot, and began to fix some coffee. Aeris sat in a chair near a small table. She saw a calendar on the table. When she examined it, it had the day when fall would start. Aeris remembered that she would have to get something to protect her flowers. Aeris also noticed a circled day of each month. They marked when they all stayed inside for the night. Frowning, Aeris was about to flip to the next month when Rueben slammed his hand on top of the calendar, glaring at her. Aeris jumped and pulled back. Rueben put the calendar on top of the fridge and put a cup of coffee in front of Aeris. She sipped the coffee and looked at it in wonder. It was so good!! She quickly finished of the cup and asked for another. Rueben grunted and poured her another, leaving the pot on the table.
"So?" she said.
"So?" Rueben echoed, and sipped his coffee. Aeris began to get mad.
"Why did you invite me in for coffee?!" she practically shouted. Rueben looked shocked, and then he grinned. Aeris thought she heard him chuckle.
"Okay Cetra, I'll tell you why. I wanted to tell you mastered the first part of the training." Rueben said, and sipped his coffee. Aeris looked stunned. She couldn't believe what she just heard.
"Wh-What?" she stammered.
"You have mastered the first part of training that took me five thousand years to master."
"NO!"
"Yes. And now I'm going to offer you something."
"What?" Aeris asked suspiciously. Rueben took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Now was the moment of truth.
"I'm going to teach you how to exceed your body's limits. I'm going to teach you how to use materia to make you stronger." He said slowly. Aeris stared at him and then burst out laughing.
"What?" Rueben said, irritated.
"Oh I'm sorry, it's just that everyone knows how to use materia to cast spells and use magic."
"No, no Cetra!" Rueben suddenly shouted, "Not like that! A totally different and completely new way to use them!" Aeris jumped up and stared at him.
"A completely new way?" she whispered, and Rueben nodded.
"Look, let's go back to the training grounds. Its Thursday, and we left early anyway. I'll show you how I use it, and I'll give you till Monday to think about it, alright? No training Friday. Alright?" he said and stood up as well. Aeris thought for a moment. Even if it was a waste of time she could use Friday to tend her garden all day.
"Alright. Let's go back." She said and picked up her rod. The Rueben did something he'd never done in front of Aeris. He smiled. He didn't grin, he smiled. For some reason Aeris began to blush and hurried out the back door, and headed for the training grounds.
*****
Cloud tugged uncomfortably at the tie of the tux he was wearing. He was supposed to meet everyone in Corel for the grand reopening of the city. Barrett was supposed to have done a fantastic job of fixing it up. He had heard rumors of it looking remarkably close to Kalm. Everyone from Avalanche had received an invitation to attend a formal party to be held in the new town hall. Tifa had jumped up and down with joy and had gone that day to get a dress. Barrett had also sent them a letter asking if they would like to move there after the reopening. Cloud agreed as soon as Tifa did. Their bar in Kalm (the New Seventh Heaven) had taken off like a rocket and Tifa wanted to open another in Corel.
Cloud stopped walking and pulled a small box out of his right pocket. He opened it for the hundredth time. In side was a ring with the diamond he had found drastically carved down and reshaped into a small rose. Cloud smiled when he told the jeweler what he wanted. The man said the chips from the diamond alone would pay for everything. Cloud put the ring away and found his motorcycle at the edge of town. He had gotten it shortly after he helped convert his first Mako reactor into a geothermal reactor. They had blown up two reactors by accident trying to get it right. Tifa had nearly had a heart attack when she heard the first explosion. After that, Cloud had sent her to Corel to wait for him until the reopening. She reluctantly agreed, knowing it would be too stressful for her to be so close to where Cloud was risking his life to get a safe means of power going. After the first reactor was done, Cloud quietly resigned from the crew remodeling the reactors. Cloud climbed onto his bike and started the engine. He put on his helmet and then gunned it for Corel.
*****
Tifa began to throwing things out of her closet, mumbling. Yuffie watched in awe as shoes flew out in a steady pace. She shifted in her chair uncomfortably, her green dress irritating her. Tifa's dress lay on the bed. It was a shiny black, with a slit up the side revealing the legs. Yuffie commented in was just like Scarlet's dresses had been , only black. Tifa smiled wickedly when Yuffie said it. Now Tifa couldn't find the shoes she bought that matched. She went threw all her closets in her new home, only in her underwear trying to find them.
"You know you can just wear a different color shoes that might go with the dress." Yuffie suggested. Tifa glared at her and then continued rummaging.
"I'm not wearing my dress until I find my shoes!" Tifa snarled, and tossed out another pair. Yuiffie sighed and then grinned.
"Well, you could just go out in your underwear. I'm sure Cloud would love that!" Yuffie said, and then pair of shoes was flung at her head.
"Hey!" she shouted and ducked. The shoes bounced of the wall and landed on the bed. They moved the dress a bit and Yuffie saw a pair of shoes lying under it. She picked them up and showed them to Tifa.
"These them?" she asked. Tifa shrieked and grabbed them.
"That's them! Where did you find them?" she asked.
"Under your dress." Yuffie said and laughed. They both began to laugh, and soon they heard a motorcycle pull up. Tifa peeked around the curtain and saw Cloud get off the bike. He was just about to take off his helmet when Tifa looked away so she could dress.
Downstairs, Barrett sat with Elmyra in the hall, Cid and Shera sat in the kitchen, and the others sat in the living room, which was filled with Cloud's boxes, which he had sent earlier in the day. They were talking when the door open and Cloud walked in. They immediately stopped talking and stared at Cloud in shock. Barrett was about to say something when Tifa and Yuffie walked down. Tifa gasped as Cloud stared wide eyed at her.
"You look great Tiff!" Cloud exclaimed as he looked at her. Tifa gazed at his head like everyone else.
"What happened to your hair, Cloud?" Yuffie asked bluntly, and walked over to get a better look. His normally pointy hair was combed flat and neatly against his head. He laughed and ran a hand threw his hair.
"I went to a salon. It took them two hours to get it like this, and they said it would only last a day!" he laughed and shook his head. Yuffie reached up patted his hair. She felt all the moose they had to use to keep it down.
"I'll bet it cost a fortune!" Barrett exclaimed and everyone laughed. Everyone was dressed up. Reeve was there, since he tuned Cait Sith in to a museum. Vincent had even dressed up, sort of. He looked the same only all his clothes were black, except his scarf, which was still red, but it looked brand new. Red was freshly groomed and trimmed, but he grumbled that he had to go to a pet shop to be cleaned.
"Well, let's get going! I'm the host and I don't want to be late! Besides that babysitter gets me good for watching Marlene! I want to get home early!" Barrett said and stood up and began to head for the door.
"Wait!" Cloud shouted and everyone turned to look at him. He took Tifa's hand and tried to speak, but he couldn't. Tifa looked at him with concern.
"Cloud, are you okay?" she asked, and put a hand on his forehead. Cloud swallowed and took her other hand in his.
"Tifa.I..me and you..*cough*...we've been together a long time and.....*cough*...I mean..well I think..I mean I know.."Cloud stammered, turning red. Tifa stared at him, in wonder.
"What is it Cloud?" she asked. Cloud sighed knowing he'd never be able to say it, but needed too.
"Here." He said and pulled the box out of his pocket and got on one knee.
"Open it and you'll get the idea." He mumbled, and squeezed her hand. Tifa opened the box and saw the ring inside. Her eyes got wide and looked from the ring to Cloud to the ring, and finally back to Cloud. He grinned nervously, as everyone watched in shock.
"So what do you say Tiff? Want to get married?" he asked nervously.
"YES! OH, YES!" she cried, and Cloud jumped up and kissed her. Shera put her hand on Cid's arm and Barrett put his good arm around Elmyra. For that moment nothing else mattered, but Tifa and Cloud.