Disclaimer: You know I don't own FFVII so I'm not going to tell you that I don't

A/N: Okay before the lynch mobs come to get me, I'm really sorry for the time it took me to update. Seriously, this is the longest it's ever taken me to write a chapter. Well, anyways I'll thank the reviewers who hopefully won't kill me for the update time. An especially big thanks to Shadowz for being the only person to review chapters six and seven. Anyway, I'll start the chapter now, and just to let you know, this one's going to start from Tifa POV before she sees Cloud get in the fight. On with the fic I guess, oh and by the way I'm going to spell Tifa's teahcer's name Zangan now because one of my reviewers said I spelled it wrong and I can't seem to find anything that says his name, so if anyone knows how to spell his name correctly and their sure that's how its spelled can you please tell me.

Chapter Eight: The Morning After

Tifa sat on the well, looking up at the stars with her knees brought up to her chest and sighed. She liked to sit here and stare at the stars at night when her farther wasn't around to talk to. Her dad was busy fixing that old bride with a couple of workers from the small town. She couldn't help but think of a promise she had made with a young boy named Cloud two years ago. She was so busy thinking she didn't notice someone walking up to her until he spoke.

"Hi there Tifa" someone said from right next to her and she jumped, nearly falling off the well. She looked like she was going to get mad till she saw who it was.

"Zangan! Don't sneak up on me like that!" She exclaimed in an annoyed voice that made her sound angry, but the angry image went away as soon as she put a big grin on her face. They started to reminice well walking around the town until they walked by an alley that had a light on in it. If that wasn't suprising enough, they heard the sounds of a fight coming from the alley. They both ran over to the entrance to the alley and noticed the scene taking place.

There were four people in the alley, one on the ground face down and out like a light, and two others ganging up on a lone man who was currently pushed up to a wall and getting hit in the ribs repeadeatly. Tifa recognized the men doing the attacking as a few locals who were know to pick fights when they got drunk and realized after looking over the man they were beating up that he was a Shin-Ra employee, since his jacket looked like a Shin-Ra jacket and the Shin-Ra logo was on the hat. The Shin-Ra weren't very popular in the moutain town and Tifa highly doubted anyone from the town would wear Shin-Ra clothes.

It was around this time that Tifa noticed something she hadn't expected. In the arms of one of the attackes was a pipe. These men had gotten into a light of fights, especially when they were drunk, but they had never brought something like that with them. Tifa started wondering just how much they were going to hurt the young MP and decided to intervene.

"What are you doing?!?" she yelled and everyone in the alley looked at her, with the exception of the knocked out drunk. The MP looked suprised, but the two drunks didn't, as they were used to her breaking up their fights. They didn't say anything and backed away from their victim. The MP started to slid down the wall, no longer having the strength to stand. Tifa started to get worried, wondering just how badly they'd beaten the poor young man, and walked over to help him to his feet. What happened when she reached him was something she had never expected to happen.

When she started to help the young solider up, she heard a muttered curse from one of the drunks. Turning quickly, she was suprised to see the man with the pipe aiming it at her. She had broken up their fights on many occasions and they had never tried to attack her, as they were to afraid of what her dad would do to them if they hurt her. Of course, they never considered what Tifa could do to them, but since she was helping the solider she couldn't bring her guard up fast enough. She didn't have to, however, as just before the pipe struck she felt herself being pushed away. She gasped as she saw the pipe strike the young man's head.

The drunk had a smug look on his face for the whole two seconds it took for Zangan to reach him and plant his fist in his face. The drunk went to the ground quickly, with what looked like teeth falling out of his mouth. The last remaining drunk tried to hit Zangan, thinking he could defeat him while he was distracted by his friend. Zangan waited till the last moment, right before the fist hit him, and he grabbed the man's arm and used his opponent's own momentum against him, leaving him sprawled on the ground, a look of pain on his face. Then Zangan walked over to look at the wounded young man and with Tifa's help he started to carry him towards the Shin-Ra mansion.

***( Cloud's POV again )***

Cloud slowly started to open his eyes, trying to focus on his surrondings. It took a few minutes, but his vision cleared and he was able to see a ceiling above his head. Suprised, he quickly sat up and his head immediatly started to throb. He felt himself get dizzy again, but didn't lie back down, determined to find out where he was. After a few minutes, the throbbing pain in his head went away and Cloud took a good look at his surroundings. He quickly realized he was in the bedroom of the Shin-Ra mansion. Cloud started to recall what had happened the night before and tried to figure out how he made it to the mansion. As if on cue to answer his questions, Zack walked into the room, carrying a tray of food.

"Hey Cloud! See you finally woke up" Zack said, setting the tray of food on a table near where Cloud was laying.

"What the hell happened?" Cloud asked with a confused expression on his face.

"You got attacked by the local drunks and hit in the head" Zack stated like it was an everyday occurence. "Of course, I doubt it hurt you judging by how thick-headed you are" he added with a sly grin on his face. Cloud's expression changed from confused to pissed off in record time.

"This isn't funny you dumbass, If I got attacked how the hell did I get back here!?!" Cloud yelled at his friend. Zack looked a little suprised at how fast he managed to get under Cloud's skin, then just grinned knowing how Cloud would react to what he was about to say.

"Oh that Tifa girl and her teacher brought you here" Zack said in a calm tone, like it made everything okay. Cloud suddenly seemed to turn pale the second Zack had finished talking. With a worried expression he continued to quesion his friend.

"T..Tifa brought me back here!" Cloud barley managed to say before asking what was a very important question to him. "Did she find out it was me?" Zack did everything he could to hide his grin, knowing Cloud was going to kill him for what he was about to do.

"Yeah, she found it was you, and let me tell you, she was really pissed that you tried to hide your identity" Zack took a look at Cloud and had to hold back laughing at his shocked expression before returing to his story "Yeah she was really mad at first, but then I told her you were only hiding yourself because you were embarassed and she started to feel really bad about being mad at you" Zack once again paused to look at Cloud and had even more trouble holding back his laughter at Cloud's relieved expression. 'Cloud's going to kill me for this!' Zack thought, but that didn't stop him from continuing.

"As a matter of fact she said you looked quite handsome in your uniform" Zack continued and when Cloud started to blush, Zack decided to finish up his little story. "Actually, she was so happy to see you and grateful that you took that hit for her, that she volunteered to take care of you herself" Zack took another look at Cloud and noticed how red he had become and started to look around the room, knowing that if he looked at Cloud's face he'd probably burst out laughing. "Yeah, it's kinda strange cause she brought you up to the room, but she didn't come down for hours, and I kept hearing odd noises the whole time she was up here..." Zack trailed off as he finally looked at Cloud and noticed a blank expression on his face.

'Did he really believe that' Zack thought, then his thoughts were interupted when something hit him in the face. Zack was suprised and as soon as he pulled the object off his face, he realized it was Cloud's pillow. Zack looked up just in enough time to see Cloud lunging at him as Cloud tackled Zack.

A/N: Well I'm really sorry for how long it took me to update, and I hope eveyone likes my slight attempt at humor in the conversation between Zack and Cloud. If you don't like it, just tell me and I'll stop trying to throw jokes in. Anyways, I'll try to update a lot faster next time.