Chapter 2

It was a beautiful morning to say the least. The sun was up and there was not a cloud in sight for miles upon miles. Taking advantage of the wonderful weather two royal figures sat outside eating their breakfast next to the gardens. It was one of their favorite places to eat when rain or cold weather did not prevent them from being outside.

"I love the gardens." Tifa said wistfully as she sat there watching water spray from the fountain near the flowers.

"I know you do." King Lockheart said smiling. "As does your cousin Aeris."

Immediately Tifa perked up and began talking of her Aeris arrival.

"What exactly did you plan for the welcoming dinner?" She asked.

"I figured since the two of you like dancing so much I might as well have that." He replied lightly continuing on only after Tifa let out a small squeal of excitement. "The event will be held in the ball room even though it is not really a ball. I figured the servants could come as well. After all they have been working extremely hard to accommodate the new arrivals."

"Father you are the absolute best!" Tifa exclaimed jumping out of her seat to hug him.

King Lockheart just laughed at his daughter and stroked her hair as she hugged him.

"You should go get ready our guests should be arriving very soon."

There was no need to tell her twice. Hugging her father one more time Tifa sped off towards the castle to go freshen up a little bit so that she looked her best when everyone arrived. Soon enough she was sitting at her vanity brushing her silky brown locks again.

"This is going to be great!" She exclaimed as she stood and spun around the room.

Two soft knocks stopped her spinning immediately as she went to see who was at her door. Upon opening it she found one of the maids smiling brightly at her.

"Yes?"

"The King says to hurry to the front because your cousin and her company are almost here." She said.

"Really! Oh thank you so much for telling me!" Tifa was so excited that she hugged the maid and took off down the stairs in a flash.

The maid laughed lightly at the princess's antics before closing the door of her bedroom softly and heading back to work around the castle.

"Are they here yet?" Tifa asked as she reached her father slightly panting from the running she just did through the castle.

"They are about to pull in. Look over there." The King pointed to the gates that were slowly opening and sure enough a pair of carriages were making there way towards them.

Tifa could barely contain her excitement as the carriages drew closer and closer. The carriages did finally come to a stop and from the first one out step a man with dark spiked up hair. He smiled brightly towards her and her father before turning back around and offering his hand out. A smaller slender hand suddenly placed itself in his and out stepped Aeris. Tifa no longer could hold still and made a dash at her favorite cousin.

"Aeris!" She yelled just before reaching her and hugging her. "I missed you so much. I'm so glad you're here."

Aeris laughed returning the hug. "I missed you a lot too. How have you been?"

"Great, just keeping all the suitors away like usual." She replied happily. "What about you? I want to know how you've been all this time."

"Same as ever I see." Aeris laughed again. "I'm sure we will have plenty of time to talk about everything, but right now I would like to introduce you to my husband."

Smiling Tifa agreed. "Okay."

Pulling the dark haired man forward Aeris began introducing them. "Tifa this is Zack Strife, my husband." Aeris eyes were lit up as she glanced up at Zack. It was obvious to anyone that she was deeply in love with the man. "Zack this is Tifa Lockheart, my favorite cousin."

Zack smiled. "It is a pleasure to meet you Tifa. Aeris talks about you all the time."

"Hopefully everything she tells you are good things." Tifa said returning the smile.

"Of course." He replied. "She never speaks an ill word of you."

"Well that's good to know. Here I thought she might be telling you all the stories of how much trouble I use to get myself into as a kid." Tifa said laughing at the thought of how much of troublemaker she was when she was little.

"You were quite the terror weren't you." Aeris stated laughing right along.

"Of course, but I had my partner in crime through it all." Tifa replied.

Any conversation that may have continued at the moment was cut off by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Wondering who interrupted them Tifa spun around to be met with the vision of deep blue eyes. The owner of the blue eyes had blonde hair that was spiked up and looked to be around her age. Tifa could tell he was strong by his build, he wasn't buff, but he was lean and you could see his muscles were toned. Tifa ceased checking him out when Zack started to speak again.

"My bad." He said. "Tifa this is my brother…"

"Cloud Strife." Cloud said interrupting his brother's introduction and stepping forward. Cloud reached out grabbing Tifa's hand and kissed it lightly.

"Tifa Lockheart." Tifa breathlessly replied. This guy was quite the catch.

"You know I think I should court you." Cloud said with a smirk. "I mean it is already obvious that you have a thing for me from the way you were checking me out earlier."

Tifa flared at this and pulled her hand away roughly. "I don't think so Mr. Strife. I wouldn't let you court me if you were the last man on the planet."

"You don't deny you were checking me out though." He said continuing to smirk as she gave him a dumbfounded look. "I think you'll warm up to my charm eventually princess. After all who can resist me?"

"First off I was not checking you out. I was merely trying to figure out if I knew who you were."

"Under close inspection." He remarked.

Ignoring him she continued. "Second of all your little charms will not work on me because I don't like you. You are too cocky and annoying. Third, I think any girl with half a brain could resist an egotistical jerk like you."

"Ouch. Princess has quite the mean side to her doesn't she, but I must say you look sexy when you're angry." He said flirtatiously.

"You're infuriating!" Tifa shouted before walking briskly away to the gardens.

Zack and Aeris were laughing as Cloud walked up to them.

"You really should not have done that." Aeris said still laughing. "She probably hates you now."

Cloud just shrugged.

The King, who had been standing watching the whole entire scene laughing silently to himself, stepped forward and after greeting everyone decided to lead the group inside the castle. The King soon found himself thinking back to what had happened between the young Strife prince and his own daughter. It was not like her to get so riled up like that over a prince commenting about courting her. Usually she would just brush it aside and eventually the prince would figure out that she didn't want to be courted and leave her alone. So what made her start shooting remarks back and for with the Strife prince? Could she possibly have a liking towards the blonde haired young man? Thoughts still whirling around in his mind the King smiled hoping Tifa may finally let a man court her at last. Sure it looked bleak now, but the Strife prince was staying for a whole month.

Meanwhile Tifa was off venting out her frustrations in the garden pacing back and forth in front of the fountain.

'How dare he!' She thought. 'Thinking that I actually want him to court me. As if, he is a jerk and I want nothing to do with him. I don't care if he is very attractive, I don't want to be courted by the likes of him and to think he said all that in front of everyone.'

Tifa growled as the scene replayed in her mind. Angrily she spun to punch a tree off to the side of her only to have it be caught in another person's hand. Surprised that someone else was out there with her she looked up to meet a pair of familiar blue eyes.

"You know it isn't smart to punch things." Cloud said smiling down at her. "You could hurt yourself."

Yanking her fist away Tifa glared at him. "What are you doing out here?" She demanded.

"Is that anyway to treat one of your guests?" He asked not at all fazed by her angry demeanor. "Here I am all worried about you and you snap at me."

"Cut the crap. I told you I'm not going to fall for your stupid charms and what not. Now answer my question. What are you doing out here?" She asked once again crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well if you really must know." Cloud was taking steps closer to her as he spoke this time. Unconsciously Tifa took a step back for everyone that he took forward until her back hit a tree and she could no longer move. Seeing this Cloud quickly closed the rest of distance between them and put each arm on either side of her head, trapping her between himself and the tree. He leaned in brushing his cheek against hers as his lips rested right next to her ear and said, "I came out here to get you."

Tifa's eyes widened after hearing those words and she felt herself, if at all possible, push closer to the tree she was leaning against when he came face to face with her, their lips only inches apart. Slowly he leaned in closer so that if either of them moved at all their lips would brush against one another.

"For dinner." He said smirking.

Tifa was enraged now. "You jerk!" She screamed as she shoved him away from her, finally finding the usage of her arms. "You had no right to do any of what you did just now." She could have killed him at that moment. Not only had he pissed her off, but he had tried to seduce her and, though she would never admit it out loud, he had basically succeeded. "You should have just told me dinner was ready!"

"Oh, but where is the fun in that princess?" His smirk was present on his face once again. "Besides I know you like being in close proximity of me and I know that you wanted me to kiss you right then too." He stated cockily.

"I would never ever want to kiss you and I do not like you being near me!" Tifa angrily responded.

"Then why didn't you push me away sooner dear princess?" He asked coolly.

"Because… Well… I… You…" Tifa was stumped. She had no good response this time so she did the only thing she could think of. Spinning around she replied. "I don't have to listen to your nonsense. I'm going to dinner."

Laughing Cloud took her arm and entwined it with his own. "I shall escort you."

"To hell you will. I can get there myself thank you very much." She said trying to untangle her arm from his, but he didn't release her.

"Your father sent me to escort you and that is just what I will do. You wouldn't want to upset your father by defying his request now would you?" He asked slyly knowing how much she hated to make her father unhappy.

"You know I really don't like you." She stated as he led her into the castle towards the ballroom.

"You say that now, but just wait you'll be singing a different tune soon enough." He replied smiling down at her.

If she wasn't so angry at him that moment she would have told him he had an amazing smile. Refusing to say anything back she let him lead her to the ballroom where everyone was waiting. She hoped that dinner would go smoothly without anymore annoying remarks from the blonde haired escort of hers. Yet she knew in the back of her mind that this dinner was not going to be how she imagined it before meeting the Strife prince. Hopefully hanging out with Aeris would help.

Either way dinner was going to be extra long tonight.