Author's Note: Wow I REALLY don't know how good this chapter will be since
I am so very sick right now. I think I have pink eye so I can barely see
the computer screen. I have a horrible cough and sore throat and my ear is
in a lot of pain. I also have a cold. I'm really falling apart here, I
don't know what happened, maybe I'm allergic to something up here. It is
my first spring in New England; maybe it's a sign, telling me to go back
south. I can only hope. Anyway, enough about what I'm dealing with right
now, I'm alternating chapters on my stories right now so it might be a
while before each one is updated. I don't know if I'll continue Beauty
Pageant because I just can't figure out who is the prettiest girl in all of
FF. Tifa and Lenne look so much alike but Yuna (10-2) and Rikku (10-2) are
also very beautiful. Sigh, what to do, what to do. Anyway, here's chapter
three!
Cloud sat patiently as he waited for the loud speaker to call the name of the next girl. He glanced at his watch; it was two minutes after eight, so perhaps it was time for that Tifa girl, or whatever her name was. He noticed around him that the room had filled up considerably. Men who were at the tables nearest to the stage had moved their tables until one edge brushed up against the side of the stage. All along the walls, horny men were lined up, standing on their tiptoes to see over the heads in front of them.
Cloud couldn't wait to see this girl; he needed to know what all the hype was about. He just couldn't picture a stripper being so captivating that she could draw an audience of this magnitude.
The lights had just dimmed. Tifa stood back stage, nervously waiting to hear her name called out. She could hear the crowd outside, already wildly drunk and giddy. She rocked up onto her toes repeatedly to up pump herself up for the night's show.
She had seen the crowd from the corner of the stage. Tonight was always a busy night, but on that night it was extra busy. It seemed that the floor had been totally covered by bodies, anxious to see her perform.
Cloud had to kneel on his barstool to see over the large number of people that stood between him and the stage. He peered out between shoulders and necks, trying to get a good view of what was happening on stage. Nothing. The lights were still dark and nothing could be seen or heard.
There was a drum roll, and Cloud rolled his eyes. All this excitement for a lousy stripper? He couldn't believe it. Two spotlights from either side of the stage circled the audience, and then focused on the center of the stage, towards the back curtain.
There she was. Dressed all in black leather, the most beautiful girl Cloud had ever seen. She was his vision exactly, long, flowing dark brown hair, large, dark almond shaped eyes. Her curves were voluptuous, her skin was flawless. She was the, in his mind's eye, the most perfect woman on earth. But Cloud had never figured that his perfect woman could be a stripper. Poor and desolate, yes, that's what he wanted, but a stripper? This startling revelation changed all his plans.
She couldn't have a heart as pure and untainted as he had hoped for. She couldn't be innocent and sweet, that just wasn't the stereotypical stripper. He looked at her longingly, wanting to hear her voice, but looked around the room to se that he was acting no different from the other men in there.
That hurt him. To finally find his dream girl but be unable to reach her. To be standing just yards from her and yet be so far away. How could he distinguish himself to her from the other men in the room? He was suddenly no different, no better, than the common man. It was exactly what he had wanted; yet now that he achieved it, he wished that he were someone else. He needed to stand out, to grab her attention, but from where he was sitting there was no way in hell that she would be able to see him.
He concentrated on her again, eyeing her up and down, trying to find a flaw from his ideal. She wore a black leather halter-top that tightly clung to her skin and reached just beneath her breasts. It had a zipper from the collar to the hem and brought out the darkness in her eyes. Again she wore a black mini-skirt that didn't even cover half her bottom, and knee high black boots that laced up the front.
She strutted out to center stage and spread her legs for defiant balance. She grasped the pole beside her and brought her knee up to it, spinning around it and leaning back, extending her hand out to the audience. The song playing was "Real Emotion" by Jade from Sweetbox.
Tifa bent over at the waist and leaned out to the audience, bringing her hand up to the zipper on her top. Slowly, with her hips moving in a circular motion, she began to unzip her shirt, letting her breasts emerge freely. The catcalls and cheers roared throughout the room and she rolled her eyes, but with the lighting no one noticed.
Cloud watched her as intently as the men around him. She appeared to be enjoying her job, and that infuriated him. He couldn't help her if she liked where she was in life. He wanted her to need him, not in a stalker- rapist sort of way, but in the way that a girlfriend needs her boyfriend. He wanted to take care of her, but suddenly he found himself in love with the same kind of girl he had vowed not to get attached to.
He watched as she raised her arms above her head, shaking hips like a belly dancer. She pranced across the stage, swinging on each of the three poles as sexy as possible. This was the fastest music she ever danced to and was almost working up a sweat to keep up with the beat.
Again she threw herself to the floor, crawling up onto the table in the center of her path, the men reaching to touch her and offer her gil. She kneeled up on it and raised her arms above her head, slowly coming down until her bottom nearly rested on the table, feeling the sides of her body with her hands.
One man dared to reach up and place a gil between her lips. Though she wanted to bite his fingers off for treating her like that, she pretended to accept it graciously, like a dog. That's what they thought of her, she was a dog. She was a loyal, thoughtless, mindless, drone of a bitch that should come at her master's every beckon.
She stood up on the table, letting the music take her over, and twisted her hips frantically. The men reached up on her legs, trying to pull her down to them. She placed her toe lightly into one man's throat, allowing him to see up her skirt, then pushed him back into his seat, elating the other men at the table.
She could feel the cheap wood beneath her start to wobble with the men who were climbing up on it to reach her. Afraid to fall and look ungraceful she decided to push off. With a great effort she jumped off the table and did a back flip up onto the stage, landing on one knee with her head bowed.
The table did not break beneath her light frame, but the men on it were all knocked back into their chairs. Tifa continued to spin from pole to pole, finally stopping on one side of the stage to give her little dance to a different section. She rubbed her hands over her breasts and down to her waist, resting her hands on her hips, then easing her skirt down over her thighs and letting it drop to her ankles.
She stepped out of it and ran back to the center pole, jumping into it and wrapping one leg around it, spinning around it like a circus acrobat, with all the grace and ease of a ballerina. The men went wild and stood up to cheer. She landed with a spin on her heels and took a bow. Tonight had not been as much a strip tease as a dance routine. She had always wanted to dance and she finally found the perfect song to incorporate it into her performance.
She waited until the lights dimmed on her and then quickly picked up her clothes and went back stage, taking a sigh of aggravated relief that her night was over, at least the dancing part was. Dan ran up to her in a sweat, he had obviously been moved by her performance and kept grasping her hand in his large, sweaty palm.
"You were wonderful tonight, baby! Absolutely splendid! Your best performance ever!" He repeated, over and over.
Tifa rolled her eyes at him and put her clothes back on. She wore the same zip-up tank top and skirt, but over her skirt she wore a half article, which wrapped around her hips and reached to the floor, covering only her left leg. She looked like she was dressed to kill as she returned to the audience floor, barely noticed.
She made her way through the lust-driven crowd, towards the bar, where she worked every night after she danced. She wasn't usually bothered getting to the bar after she left the backstage area; the guys were already focused on the next dancer. She walked over seemingly unnoticed and began to take orders.
The men seated at the bar barely looked at her when she asked them what they wanted. Only one man turned to face her when she spoke, and she regretted it. For the rest of the night he would not take his eyes off of her. He was a very attractive man though, she thought to herself, but still he was probably just like all the other men in the club, sleazy and horny.
"What'll you have?" She asked politely, wiping a glass dry for him.
As much as he concentrated on her he could not find a flaw in her from his perfect vision. He watched her every move, a little tipsy and feeling like a stalker, but she didn't seem to give a damn about his existence, which drove him insane.
"Umm...how about a Red Canyon?" He asked, trying his hand at a harsher liquor.
Tifa nodded and bent down below the bar to the fridge. She came back up and popped the top of the bottle off with her fingertips, watching it fly out into the audience. She laughed, amused with herself, hoping she hit some poor bastard in the eye. She slid the bottle over to Cloud without it tipping and spun around to complete her show.
He was incredibly attractive, she now thought, and was trying to keep his attention on her, but she didn't want to really get to know him. She just wanted him to be her crush for the night. Tomorrow she would talk about him to the other strippers, and that would be the extent of her feelings for him. But something inside her told her that he was different from the other men, that he was foreign to them.
"Thanks." He said, nervously lifting the bottle to toast her. She smiled and stretched her arms along the side of the bar, leaning in towards him to flirt.
"That'll be fifteen gil." She said, innocently, trying to get him to focus on her face and not her breasts, even though she was teasing him with them.
Cloud reached into his pocket and found the needed amount. He placed it in Tifa's palm and smiled at her. She blushed a little, as she never had to a patron, and put the gil in the cash register. The other men at the bar were still watching the dancers so no new drinks were being ordered. She saw Cloud cringe when he took a sip of the beer and giggled to herself, strolling over to him in the hopes of striking up a conversation.
"Don't like the taste?" She asked, as kindly as she could. He looked up at her, embarrassed and shook his head.
"No, no, it's great...I'm just," He looked down at the bar, "not much of a beer drinker." He added, blushing. Here was a girl who worked in a strip club and mixed drink, she would probably think he was a loser for not drinking beer, but he couldn't help himself. He wanted to be honest with her, to let her know that he was genuine and that he would not hurt her.
"Oh really? Me neither, terrible stuff I think." Tifa replied, pointing to the beer. "Here, I can make it better for you." She turned away from him and grabbed a small bottle from the back cabinet. She brought it over to Cloud and poured it into his drink, raising her hand high into the air and letting the liquid flow effortlessly into the neck of the bottle.
Cloud watched as the additive danced into his beer. It was as if she controlled it with her mind. The liquid arched into the bottle perfectly and he couldn't believe what a great magician she also was. He tried to look at the tiny bottle to figure out what she just put in his drink, but her hand was blocking the label. The lighting was terrible in the room so he could not even tell what color it was either.
"What's that?" He asked skeptically with a raised eyebrow. Tifa realized that he was cautious and stepped away from him, smiling.
"It's what I put in all my drinks when I want to taste something good." She cheered, grinning. Noticing the perplexed expression on Cloud's face she decided to elaborate. "It's just grape juice, I swear. Everyone around here drinks so I feel like a stranger not. But I hate the taste of alcohol so I just pour grape juice in it and that's all I taste!" She cooed, waiting for him to take a sip. "Try it, you'll like it."
Cloud took another sip from the bottle. It was true, all he tasted was the sweet grape juice and he quickly found himself downing the entire bottle. He put the glass down on the table and held up his finger for another one.
"Let's just start a tab." She teased as she mixed him another drink. "I haven't seen you around in here before, you new in town?" She asked him after he finished half of his new bottle.
"Kind of." He said, trying to avoid the subject.
He didn't want to tell her who he was, not yet anyway. He wanted to get to know her first, if that could even be possible, before he informed her of his status. He was glad that she didn't recognize him, that made it easier for him to let her know who he was on the inside.
"Kind of? What do you mean? Do you not know?" She mused, raising an eyebrow.
Cloud bowed his head and smiled. He wished he could tell her, but maybe that would frighten her away. After all, he couldn't even believe that she was actually talking to him; she had seemed so disinterested at first. He would have never thought that she would actually be a kind person, and one who hated alcohol at that.
"I mean, yes. I am new in town, just got here today." He covered up his half-truth. She looked at him thoughtfully and tilted her head.
"You don't waste any time hitting the strip clubs do you?" She joked, though in the back of her mind she was crushed to discover that he was, in fact, just like all the other men in her life.
She thought he was different, but he wasn't. He had just gotten into town and instead of unpacking and settling he went out to find a cheap frill for the evening. She cursed herself for ever believing that such a man could be different from all the rest.
"What?" Cloud was thrown by her question and he realized that he had said the wrong thing by the look of disgust on her face. "No, no, this is my first time in a strip club." He said, trying to sound sincere. It was his first time, but since he tried desperately to convince her he seemed like he was lying.
Tifa looked at him in disbelief. Did he think she was stupid? A man didn't move into a new town and suddenly decide to go clubbing. Especially on his first night in a strange place. She was angry that he had lied and was lying to her.
"Uh huh?" She said with a raised eyebrow and her hands on her hips. She knew he was lying through her teeth. She turned to walk to the other end of the bar but Cloud suddenly leaned over the counter, disturbing some of the other patrons.
The moved their elbows as he leaned, looking at him in disgust. A moment later they returned to watching the dancers and forgot about the strange man on the counter.
"Wait! I'm serious!" Cloud pleaded when she turned her back on him. She turned to face him and noticed the sincerity in his eyes.
She walked back over to him and he sat down. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Maybe he was telling the truth. She placed her elbows on the table and propped her head up on her fists, concentrating on his eyes to see if he was lying or not.
"So you just moved into town? And the first thing you do is decide to try a strip club for the first time?" She said, accenting the difficulty she was having in believing him.
"mmhmm." Cloud said eagerly, begging her to believe him. Tifa sighed and shrugged her shoulders, looking at him once again.
"Why do I not believe you?" She asked him bitterly. He looked at her with saddened eyes.
"I know it's weird, but...the way I've lived my life..." He scratched the back of his head as he spoke, "I haven't lived what you'd think was a 'normal' live" He made quotation marks with his fingers. Tifa looked at him with a skeptical eye. "I moved here thinking I'd try my hand at living normally."
It made a little bit of sense, but Tifa still didn't completely trust him. She accepted his response and would continue to talk to him, but she felt that there was something he was hiding. And she was determined to find out just what that was.
"But why come here?" She asked. Cloud looked at his hands as he twiddled his thumbs.
"This was the first one I saw." He said with a shrug and an innocent smile. Tifa laughed at how cute he was.
"We are the first one on the block." She mused, adding to his comment and letting him know she wasn't mad. Cloud took another sip from his mixed beer.
"So why did you start...um...doing this?" He said, trying to further the conversation without insulting her.
It was Tifa's turn to blush and look down. How could she tell him? She didn't want him to think that she was easy because of the fact that she thought that if she stripped she could get help getting into Midgar University.
"Well..." She thought about how to say it. "I met Dan, he's the owner, at a martial arts class I was taking, and he said that...umm..." She couldn't look at him as she spoke, "that he would help me get into college if I worked for him." She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and her cheeks flushed. Cloud didn't know what to say, he had obviously hit a nerve.
"When was that?" He asked, slowly, giving her ample time to respond. Her eyes widened like a lost puppy and a tear slid down her cheek.
"A year ago..." She confessed, bowing her head, unable to look into his eyes, embarrassed for herself.
Cloud could see the gentle rise and fall of her shoulders as she fought to hide the tears from him. He put a hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her, but she flinched and he retreated. She looked up at him, her eyes dry but faint red streams ran down her face to her chin. She wiped her eyes and tried to regain her composure.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have..." She trailed, angry that she had just embarrassed herself in front of him.
"Hey it's okay." Cloud said, trying to comfort her. "It's no big deal, we all make mistakes." He clenched his teeth and cringed, having said the wrong thing again. She shot him a glance of hurt and anger. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you..." He tried to apologize.
Tifa stood back up and brushed her hair out of her face. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing her evening was turning out to be a disaster. She was bringing out the worst in him, and what's more, she cried in front of him. She had just met a man that fit her vision of a perfect man exactly, and she was ruining her chances.
"It's okay, you didn't, I know I made the wrong choice..." She hung her head again, "I just really wanted to get into college." Again Cloud put his hand on her shoulder, but this time, she did not recede.
"What college was it?" He asked, hoping he could help her. She glanced up into his eyes and swallowed back her emotions.
"Midgar University." She could see his eyes light up with excitement at her response.
"That's great! I can help you get in!" He exclaimed, fighting back the temptation to tell her that his father owned it.
Again she gave him a skeptical look. This guy just couldn't stop lying, she thought. She sighed in disbelief and crossed her arms over her chest, curling the corner of her lip up and squinting one eye.
"Yeah, right. Heard that before." She said, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.
Did this guy really thing she was that dumb? She had just told him that Dan had taken advantage of her gullibility and now he was trying to do the same thing. She looked away from him and stomped her foot. Why were all the attractive men such jerks?
"No, I'm serious though. My dad he...uh...works there." He said, trying not to give away too much information about himself. Tifa still didn't believe him.
"I think I'll just try and get in on my own, I don't need another job." She sneered, looking him up and down.
Cloud shook his head. He had never had to work so hard at gaining a woman's trust before. He knew that Tifa had to be street smart, and he was up for the challenge. Still, he wished that she believed him. But he couldn't tell her who he really was, he couldn't take the chance.
"I'm not offering you a job, I'm not like that." He replied.
"Then what are you like?" She asked quickly, in retaliation.
"Well," He began, looking up at the ceiling innocently. "I'm kind, and romantic, and I enjoy long walks on the beach and candlelit dinners." He mused, bringing a smile to her lips.
A patron on the other end of the bar called for her and she held up her index finger for Cloud to wait. She walked over and spoke to him for a minute, pretending to laugh at his lame joke and taking his come-ons in stride. She handed him the drink he ordered and returned to Cloud, smiling as if nothing had happened.
"Long walks on the beach huh?" She mused, propping her chin on her fist. "Never been to a beach before." Cloud's jaw dropped.
"Really? Never? I'll take you some time then." He assured her with a smile. She laughed and nodded.
"Oh okay." She smiled, not really believing him. She looked at the clock on the back of the bar and noticed that she had lost track of the time by talking to him. "Oh wow, look at the time. It's time for me to go home!" She cheered, grinning happily.
Cloud looked at his watched and noticed the time as well. It was nearly two in the morning. He and Tifa had been talking for hours, but it only felt like minutes. He needed more time with her, he wanted more time with her. She was amazing, and he didn't want to be without her.
"Oh, I see." He said, looking down.
Tifa didn't notice or hear him as she went to the back closet to grab her coat. She came back out to punch out and be on her way, smiling at Cloud. She didn't want to seem desperate but she really wanted to spend more time with him and get to know him. But being who she was she didn't want him to think that he would get a night with her and decided not to ask him anything. Instead, he made the first move.
"Can I walk you home?" Cloud asked, with a pleading smile. Tifa laughed skeptically.
"Sure." She said, trying to hide her excitement.
She could feel the butterflies in her stomach swarm as he reached out his arm for her to take hold of. She looped her arm in his and allowed him to lead her down the street. She wasn't sure what to think as they walked down the icy city streets, whether he was genuine or whether he had something more sinister on his mind, but frankly, she didn't care. She really felt that she had struck a chord with this man and she couldn't find anything about him that led to her believing that he might hurt her in any way.
They reached her apartment door and she turned around to look at him. He was so handsome, she thought as she gazed longingly into his cerulean eyes. She couldn't help herself but feel attached already, and she leaned in for a kiss, nonchalantly.
"Well, goodnight." Cloud said with a wave, leaving her hanging in limbo. She nodded in slight disapproval and he held out his hand for her. He placed something in the palm of her hand and she didn't even bother to look at it yet. "My tab." He said, closing her hand around the gil and smiling, with a quick nod and a wink.
He didn't want to seem too forward with her. He didn't want her to think that he was after something. It was a hard road for him to take, especially since she had been the one to lean in. But he was proud of himself nonetheless. Seeing a little hurt in her eyes as she turned to walk into her home, he sighed, wanting to say he was sorry, but she was already gone. He turned and walked down the street in the opposite direction to find a hotel to stay at for the night.
Tifa walked into her apartment and sat down on the couch, still clutching the gil in her hand, the gil that he had given her. She would take it to work tomorrow and place in the cash register to come out even, even though no one ever checked.
She unfolded her hand to count the gil and gasped. His bill had only been forty-five gil, but when she counted what she had in her hand, there was an extra thousand gil. She jumped up and raced out the door, into the bitter cold to try and catch him, to tell him that he made a mistake. But when she looked outside she saw no one, just the first few flakes of a winter's snow. She smiled as she counted it again and went back inside, no longer upset for the lingering kiss.
Cloud sat patiently as he waited for the loud speaker to call the name of the next girl. He glanced at his watch; it was two minutes after eight, so perhaps it was time for that Tifa girl, or whatever her name was. He noticed around him that the room had filled up considerably. Men who were at the tables nearest to the stage had moved their tables until one edge brushed up against the side of the stage. All along the walls, horny men were lined up, standing on their tiptoes to see over the heads in front of them.
Cloud couldn't wait to see this girl; he needed to know what all the hype was about. He just couldn't picture a stripper being so captivating that she could draw an audience of this magnitude.
The lights had just dimmed. Tifa stood back stage, nervously waiting to hear her name called out. She could hear the crowd outside, already wildly drunk and giddy. She rocked up onto her toes repeatedly to up pump herself up for the night's show.
She had seen the crowd from the corner of the stage. Tonight was always a busy night, but on that night it was extra busy. It seemed that the floor had been totally covered by bodies, anxious to see her perform.
Cloud had to kneel on his barstool to see over the large number of people that stood between him and the stage. He peered out between shoulders and necks, trying to get a good view of what was happening on stage. Nothing. The lights were still dark and nothing could be seen or heard.
There was a drum roll, and Cloud rolled his eyes. All this excitement for a lousy stripper? He couldn't believe it. Two spotlights from either side of the stage circled the audience, and then focused on the center of the stage, towards the back curtain.
There she was. Dressed all in black leather, the most beautiful girl Cloud had ever seen. She was his vision exactly, long, flowing dark brown hair, large, dark almond shaped eyes. Her curves were voluptuous, her skin was flawless. She was the, in his mind's eye, the most perfect woman on earth. But Cloud had never figured that his perfect woman could be a stripper. Poor and desolate, yes, that's what he wanted, but a stripper? This startling revelation changed all his plans.
She couldn't have a heart as pure and untainted as he had hoped for. She couldn't be innocent and sweet, that just wasn't the stereotypical stripper. He looked at her longingly, wanting to hear her voice, but looked around the room to se that he was acting no different from the other men in there.
That hurt him. To finally find his dream girl but be unable to reach her. To be standing just yards from her and yet be so far away. How could he distinguish himself to her from the other men in the room? He was suddenly no different, no better, than the common man. It was exactly what he had wanted; yet now that he achieved it, he wished that he were someone else. He needed to stand out, to grab her attention, but from where he was sitting there was no way in hell that she would be able to see him.
He concentrated on her again, eyeing her up and down, trying to find a flaw from his ideal. She wore a black leather halter-top that tightly clung to her skin and reached just beneath her breasts. It had a zipper from the collar to the hem and brought out the darkness in her eyes. Again she wore a black mini-skirt that didn't even cover half her bottom, and knee high black boots that laced up the front.
She strutted out to center stage and spread her legs for defiant balance. She grasped the pole beside her and brought her knee up to it, spinning around it and leaning back, extending her hand out to the audience. The song playing was "Real Emotion" by Jade from Sweetbox.
Tifa bent over at the waist and leaned out to the audience, bringing her hand up to the zipper on her top. Slowly, with her hips moving in a circular motion, she began to unzip her shirt, letting her breasts emerge freely. The catcalls and cheers roared throughout the room and she rolled her eyes, but with the lighting no one noticed.
Cloud watched her as intently as the men around him. She appeared to be enjoying her job, and that infuriated him. He couldn't help her if she liked where she was in life. He wanted her to need him, not in a stalker- rapist sort of way, but in the way that a girlfriend needs her boyfriend. He wanted to take care of her, but suddenly he found himself in love with the same kind of girl he had vowed not to get attached to.
He watched as she raised her arms above her head, shaking hips like a belly dancer. She pranced across the stage, swinging on each of the three poles as sexy as possible. This was the fastest music she ever danced to and was almost working up a sweat to keep up with the beat.
Again she threw herself to the floor, crawling up onto the table in the center of her path, the men reaching to touch her and offer her gil. She kneeled up on it and raised her arms above her head, slowly coming down until her bottom nearly rested on the table, feeling the sides of her body with her hands.
One man dared to reach up and place a gil between her lips. Though she wanted to bite his fingers off for treating her like that, she pretended to accept it graciously, like a dog. That's what they thought of her, she was a dog. She was a loyal, thoughtless, mindless, drone of a bitch that should come at her master's every beckon.
She stood up on the table, letting the music take her over, and twisted her hips frantically. The men reached up on her legs, trying to pull her down to them. She placed her toe lightly into one man's throat, allowing him to see up her skirt, then pushed him back into his seat, elating the other men at the table.
She could feel the cheap wood beneath her start to wobble with the men who were climbing up on it to reach her. Afraid to fall and look ungraceful she decided to push off. With a great effort she jumped off the table and did a back flip up onto the stage, landing on one knee with her head bowed.
The table did not break beneath her light frame, but the men on it were all knocked back into their chairs. Tifa continued to spin from pole to pole, finally stopping on one side of the stage to give her little dance to a different section. She rubbed her hands over her breasts and down to her waist, resting her hands on her hips, then easing her skirt down over her thighs and letting it drop to her ankles.
She stepped out of it and ran back to the center pole, jumping into it and wrapping one leg around it, spinning around it like a circus acrobat, with all the grace and ease of a ballerina. The men went wild and stood up to cheer. She landed with a spin on her heels and took a bow. Tonight had not been as much a strip tease as a dance routine. She had always wanted to dance and she finally found the perfect song to incorporate it into her performance.
She waited until the lights dimmed on her and then quickly picked up her clothes and went back stage, taking a sigh of aggravated relief that her night was over, at least the dancing part was. Dan ran up to her in a sweat, he had obviously been moved by her performance and kept grasping her hand in his large, sweaty palm.
"You were wonderful tonight, baby! Absolutely splendid! Your best performance ever!" He repeated, over and over.
Tifa rolled her eyes at him and put her clothes back on. She wore the same zip-up tank top and skirt, but over her skirt she wore a half article, which wrapped around her hips and reached to the floor, covering only her left leg. She looked like she was dressed to kill as she returned to the audience floor, barely noticed.
She made her way through the lust-driven crowd, towards the bar, where she worked every night after she danced. She wasn't usually bothered getting to the bar after she left the backstage area; the guys were already focused on the next dancer. She walked over seemingly unnoticed and began to take orders.
The men seated at the bar barely looked at her when she asked them what they wanted. Only one man turned to face her when she spoke, and she regretted it. For the rest of the night he would not take his eyes off of her. He was a very attractive man though, she thought to herself, but still he was probably just like all the other men in the club, sleazy and horny.
"What'll you have?" She asked politely, wiping a glass dry for him.
As much as he concentrated on her he could not find a flaw in her from his perfect vision. He watched her every move, a little tipsy and feeling like a stalker, but she didn't seem to give a damn about his existence, which drove him insane.
"Umm...how about a Red Canyon?" He asked, trying his hand at a harsher liquor.
Tifa nodded and bent down below the bar to the fridge. She came back up and popped the top of the bottle off with her fingertips, watching it fly out into the audience. She laughed, amused with herself, hoping she hit some poor bastard in the eye. She slid the bottle over to Cloud without it tipping and spun around to complete her show.
He was incredibly attractive, she now thought, and was trying to keep his attention on her, but she didn't want to really get to know him. She just wanted him to be her crush for the night. Tomorrow she would talk about him to the other strippers, and that would be the extent of her feelings for him. But something inside her told her that he was different from the other men, that he was foreign to them.
"Thanks." He said, nervously lifting the bottle to toast her. She smiled and stretched her arms along the side of the bar, leaning in towards him to flirt.
"That'll be fifteen gil." She said, innocently, trying to get him to focus on her face and not her breasts, even though she was teasing him with them.
Cloud reached into his pocket and found the needed amount. He placed it in Tifa's palm and smiled at her. She blushed a little, as she never had to a patron, and put the gil in the cash register. The other men at the bar were still watching the dancers so no new drinks were being ordered. She saw Cloud cringe when he took a sip of the beer and giggled to herself, strolling over to him in the hopes of striking up a conversation.
"Don't like the taste?" She asked, as kindly as she could. He looked up at her, embarrassed and shook his head.
"No, no, it's great...I'm just," He looked down at the bar, "not much of a beer drinker." He added, blushing. Here was a girl who worked in a strip club and mixed drink, she would probably think he was a loser for not drinking beer, but he couldn't help himself. He wanted to be honest with her, to let her know that he was genuine and that he would not hurt her.
"Oh really? Me neither, terrible stuff I think." Tifa replied, pointing to the beer. "Here, I can make it better for you." She turned away from him and grabbed a small bottle from the back cabinet. She brought it over to Cloud and poured it into his drink, raising her hand high into the air and letting the liquid flow effortlessly into the neck of the bottle.
Cloud watched as the additive danced into his beer. It was as if she controlled it with her mind. The liquid arched into the bottle perfectly and he couldn't believe what a great magician she also was. He tried to look at the tiny bottle to figure out what she just put in his drink, but her hand was blocking the label. The lighting was terrible in the room so he could not even tell what color it was either.
"What's that?" He asked skeptically with a raised eyebrow. Tifa realized that he was cautious and stepped away from him, smiling.
"It's what I put in all my drinks when I want to taste something good." She cheered, grinning. Noticing the perplexed expression on Cloud's face she decided to elaborate. "It's just grape juice, I swear. Everyone around here drinks so I feel like a stranger not. But I hate the taste of alcohol so I just pour grape juice in it and that's all I taste!" She cooed, waiting for him to take a sip. "Try it, you'll like it."
Cloud took another sip from the bottle. It was true, all he tasted was the sweet grape juice and he quickly found himself downing the entire bottle. He put the glass down on the table and held up his finger for another one.
"Let's just start a tab." She teased as she mixed him another drink. "I haven't seen you around in here before, you new in town?" She asked him after he finished half of his new bottle.
"Kind of." He said, trying to avoid the subject.
He didn't want to tell her who he was, not yet anyway. He wanted to get to know her first, if that could even be possible, before he informed her of his status. He was glad that she didn't recognize him, that made it easier for him to let her know who he was on the inside.
"Kind of? What do you mean? Do you not know?" She mused, raising an eyebrow.
Cloud bowed his head and smiled. He wished he could tell her, but maybe that would frighten her away. After all, he couldn't even believe that she was actually talking to him; she had seemed so disinterested at first. He would have never thought that she would actually be a kind person, and one who hated alcohol at that.
"I mean, yes. I am new in town, just got here today." He covered up his half-truth. She looked at him thoughtfully and tilted her head.
"You don't waste any time hitting the strip clubs do you?" She joked, though in the back of her mind she was crushed to discover that he was, in fact, just like all the other men in her life.
She thought he was different, but he wasn't. He had just gotten into town and instead of unpacking and settling he went out to find a cheap frill for the evening. She cursed herself for ever believing that such a man could be different from all the rest.
"What?" Cloud was thrown by her question and he realized that he had said the wrong thing by the look of disgust on her face. "No, no, this is my first time in a strip club." He said, trying to sound sincere. It was his first time, but since he tried desperately to convince her he seemed like he was lying.
Tifa looked at him in disbelief. Did he think she was stupid? A man didn't move into a new town and suddenly decide to go clubbing. Especially on his first night in a strange place. She was angry that he had lied and was lying to her.
"Uh huh?" She said with a raised eyebrow and her hands on her hips. She knew he was lying through her teeth. She turned to walk to the other end of the bar but Cloud suddenly leaned over the counter, disturbing some of the other patrons.
The moved their elbows as he leaned, looking at him in disgust. A moment later they returned to watching the dancers and forgot about the strange man on the counter.
"Wait! I'm serious!" Cloud pleaded when she turned her back on him. She turned to face him and noticed the sincerity in his eyes.
She walked back over to him and he sat down. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. Maybe he was telling the truth. She placed her elbows on the table and propped her head up on her fists, concentrating on his eyes to see if he was lying or not.
"So you just moved into town? And the first thing you do is decide to try a strip club for the first time?" She said, accenting the difficulty she was having in believing him.
"mmhmm." Cloud said eagerly, begging her to believe him. Tifa sighed and shrugged her shoulders, looking at him once again.
"Why do I not believe you?" She asked him bitterly. He looked at her with saddened eyes.
"I know it's weird, but...the way I've lived my life..." He scratched the back of his head as he spoke, "I haven't lived what you'd think was a 'normal' live" He made quotation marks with his fingers. Tifa looked at him with a skeptical eye. "I moved here thinking I'd try my hand at living normally."
It made a little bit of sense, but Tifa still didn't completely trust him. She accepted his response and would continue to talk to him, but she felt that there was something he was hiding. And she was determined to find out just what that was.
"But why come here?" She asked. Cloud looked at his hands as he twiddled his thumbs.
"This was the first one I saw." He said with a shrug and an innocent smile. Tifa laughed at how cute he was.
"We are the first one on the block." She mused, adding to his comment and letting him know she wasn't mad. Cloud took another sip from his mixed beer.
"So why did you start...um...doing this?" He said, trying to further the conversation without insulting her.
It was Tifa's turn to blush and look down. How could she tell him? She didn't want him to think that she was easy because of the fact that she thought that if she stripped she could get help getting into Midgar University.
"Well..." She thought about how to say it. "I met Dan, he's the owner, at a martial arts class I was taking, and he said that...umm..." She couldn't look at him as she spoke, "that he would help me get into college if I worked for him." She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and her cheeks flushed. Cloud didn't know what to say, he had obviously hit a nerve.
"When was that?" He asked, slowly, giving her ample time to respond. Her eyes widened like a lost puppy and a tear slid down her cheek.
"A year ago..." She confessed, bowing her head, unable to look into his eyes, embarrassed for herself.
Cloud could see the gentle rise and fall of her shoulders as she fought to hide the tears from him. He put a hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her, but she flinched and he retreated. She looked up at him, her eyes dry but faint red streams ran down her face to her chin. She wiped her eyes and tried to regain her composure.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have..." She trailed, angry that she had just embarrassed herself in front of him.
"Hey it's okay." Cloud said, trying to comfort her. "It's no big deal, we all make mistakes." He clenched his teeth and cringed, having said the wrong thing again. She shot him a glance of hurt and anger. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you..." He tried to apologize.
Tifa stood back up and brushed her hair out of her face. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, knowing her evening was turning out to be a disaster. She was bringing out the worst in him, and what's more, she cried in front of him. She had just met a man that fit her vision of a perfect man exactly, and she was ruining her chances.
"It's okay, you didn't, I know I made the wrong choice..." She hung her head again, "I just really wanted to get into college." Again Cloud put his hand on her shoulder, but this time, she did not recede.
"What college was it?" He asked, hoping he could help her. She glanced up into his eyes and swallowed back her emotions.
"Midgar University." She could see his eyes light up with excitement at her response.
"That's great! I can help you get in!" He exclaimed, fighting back the temptation to tell her that his father owned it.
Again she gave him a skeptical look. This guy just couldn't stop lying, she thought. She sighed in disbelief and crossed her arms over her chest, curling the corner of her lip up and squinting one eye.
"Yeah, right. Heard that before." She said, blowing a strand of hair out of her face.
Did this guy really thing she was that dumb? She had just told him that Dan had taken advantage of her gullibility and now he was trying to do the same thing. She looked away from him and stomped her foot. Why were all the attractive men such jerks?
"No, I'm serious though. My dad he...uh...works there." He said, trying not to give away too much information about himself. Tifa still didn't believe him.
"I think I'll just try and get in on my own, I don't need another job." She sneered, looking him up and down.
Cloud shook his head. He had never had to work so hard at gaining a woman's trust before. He knew that Tifa had to be street smart, and he was up for the challenge. Still, he wished that she believed him. But he couldn't tell her who he really was, he couldn't take the chance.
"I'm not offering you a job, I'm not like that." He replied.
"Then what are you like?" She asked quickly, in retaliation.
"Well," He began, looking up at the ceiling innocently. "I'm kind, and romantic, and I enjoy long walks on the beach and candlelit dinners." He mused, bringing a smile to her lips.
A patron on the other end of the bar called for her and she held up her index finger for Cloud to wait. She walked over and spoke to him for a minute, pretending to laugh at his lame joke and taking his come-ons in stride. She handed him the drink he ordered and returned to Cloud, smiling as if nothing had happened.
"Long walks on the beach huh?" She mused, propping her chin on her fist. "Never been to a beach before." Cloud's jaw dropped.
"Really? Never? I'll take you some time then." He assured her with a smile. She laughed and nodded.
"Oh okay." She smiled, not really believing him. She looked at the clock on the back of the bar and noticed that she had lost track of the time by talking to him. "Oh wow, look at the time. It's time for me to go home!" She cheered, grinning happily.
Cloud looked at his watched and noticed the time as well. It was nearly two in the morning. He and Tifa had been talking for hours, but it only felt like minutes. He needed more time with her, he wanted more time with her. She was amazing, and he didn't want to be without her.
"Oh, I see." He said, looking down.
Tifa didn't notice or hear him as she went to the back closet to grab her coat. She came back out to punch out and be on her way, smiling at Cloud. She didn't want to seem desperate but she really wanted to spend more time with him and get to know him. But being who she was she didn't want him to think that he would get a night with her and decided not to ask him anything. Instead, he made the first move.
"Can I walk you home?" Cloud asked, with a pleading smile. Tifa laughed skeptically.
"Sure." She said, trying to hide her excitement.
She could feel the butterflies in her stomach swarm as he reached out his arm for her to take hold of. She looped her arm in his and allowed him to lead her down the street. She wasn't sure what to think as they walked down the icy city streets, whether he was genuine or whether he had something more sinister on his mind, but frankly, she didn't care. She really felt that she had struck a chord with this man and she couldn't find anything about him that led to her believing that he might hurt her in any way.
They reached her apartment door and she turned around to look at him. He was so handsome, she thought as she gazed longingly into his cerulean eyes. She couldn't help herself but feel attached already, and she leaned in for a kiss, nonchalantly.
"Well, goodnight." Cloud said with a wave, leaving her hanging in limbo. She nodded in slight disapproval and he held out his hand for her. He placed something in the palm of her hand and she didn't even bother to look at it yet. "My tab." He said, closing her hand around the gil and smiling, with a quick nod and a wink.
He didn't want to seem too forward with her. He didn't want her to think that he was after something. It was a hard road for him to take, especially since she had been the one to lean in. But he was proud of himself nonetheless. Seeing a little hurt in her eyes as she turned to walk into her home, he sighed, wanting to say he was sorry, but she was already gone. He turned and walked down the street in the opposite direction to find a hotel to stay at for the night.
Tifa walked into her apartment and sat down on the couch, still clutching the gil in her hand, the gil that he had given her. She would take it to work tomorrow and place in the cash register to come out even, even though no one ever checked.
She unfolded her hand to count the gil and gasped. His bill had only been forty-five gil, but when she counted what she had in her hand, there was an extra thousand gil. She jumped up and raced out the door, into the bitter cold to try and catch him, to tell him that he made a mistake. But when she looked outside she saw no one, just the first few flakes of a winter's snow. She smiled as she counted it again and went back inside, no longer upset for the lingering kiss.