One hundred eighty-seven gil. Thirty-eight gil less than what she needed.
Every day Tifa would walk by Wall-Market General and see the perfect gift for Vincent hanging in the store window display: a long chain with the three-headed Cerberus medallion on the end. It was what he called his three-barreled pistol, a weapon which he had used to dispatch many an enemy to meet the monstrous hound at the gate to hell. She knew it would make the perfect compliment to the esteemed weapon. But every day that she walked by it with longing looks, she feared that the next day it would not be there dangling enticingly from a rack in the window because someone else had bought it, or the owners had found something better to display.
She had no reason to get it for him other than that she loved him and wanted him to have something valuable from her, and she had a very good reason not to get it for him. She did not have enough money.
Ever since she and Vincent had invested all of the money they had earned during their quest to stop Sephiroth from destroying the Planet into opening a second Seventh Heaven in The Edge on the outskirts of the Midgar ruins, their income had become tight. Everything went into the bar and living expenses, which they had tried to keep low. She hoped that within the next six months they would begin to turn a profit and then their money issues would not be so tight, but that hope did nothing to dispel her despair at the moment of never being able to buy Vincent the Cerberus medallion and chain.
Tifa sighed as she looked over her accounts again. On Sundays—the only day she closed the bar—she would settle the accounts and do the shopping. After paying the mortgage, utilities, buying supplies, and putting a little away for a rainy day, which now was decidedly not raining, Tifa could only conceivably spend 187 gil. The Cerberus medallion cost 225 gil.
She shut down her computer and shoved the keyboard away so that she could rest her head in her arms in dejection. Her silky hair pooled around her like a pillow. All she needed was thirty-eight gil…not a large sum by any means, but it might as well be a million. Where could she come up with that amount quickly?
Suddenly she sat up, sending her thick tresses to cascade around her like a waterfall. When she sat, her hair almost touched the ground. She had never in her life cut it. Her father had never allowed her to since it reminded him of her mother, and she knew that Vincent loved to run his hands through the soft waves. But lately as the heavy hair would fall out of its ponytail, making her job serving customers infinitely harder, not to mention hotter, she had thought about cutting it.
She got up and walked to the full length mirror she kept in her bedroom. She stared at herself long and hard. She was very fond of her hair. She had used it to seduce Vincent when he had stubbornly refused to acknowledge his attraction to her by finding ways to have it brush against his skin, or fall into his lap, and by shampooing with a heady fragrance. She knew she would miss it. But she also thought it was for a worthy cause. Perhaps it would be used in a wig that might one day adorn some poor girl's head who had lost all her hair in a freak accident.
Tifa quickly grabbed her purse and ran out of the apartment on top of the bar and down the stairs to the street. If she thought too long about it, she would talk herself out of it.
First she ran to the store to make sure that it was still hanging in the window display. Relieved to find that it was, she ran to another store, the sign which read "Sofronie's Hair Goods." She burst in, a little door chime signaling to a short, kind-looking old lady that she had a customer.
"I need to sell my hair. How much will you give to me for it?"
The little old lady let out a low whistle. "Such beautiful hair. Are you sure you want to cut it? You must have been growing it for a very long time."
"Yes. I need it to buy a gift for my husband."
"Are you sure your husband will like it? I can't imagine that he would…"
"No," Tifa admitted. "But I know he'll like the gift. It's perfect for him. Not ostentatious, but classy, and beautiful, just like he is."
"You must love him very much to make such a sacrifice."
"Oh, I do." Tifa nodded emphatically.
"All right, I'll give you fifty gil for you hair."
"That's perfect! Thank you, so much!"
"It is I who should be thanking you," the kind old lady replied, then waved Tifa into a chair and pulled out some scissors from her pocket.
Half an hour later Tifa walked out of there with a stylish new cut, her head feeling several pounds lighter, and her pocket book several gil heavier.
She went straight to the store, and could not feel completely satisfied until the gift, wrapped in a silver box with a crimson ribbon, was in her hands.
When she returned to her apartment on top of the bar, she tried not to look into her mirror or play with her hair. She distracted herself by starting dinner and imagining the pleasure Vincent would receive when she gave him his present.
Vincent had been gone for several days, tying up loose ends in Nibelheim, and he had promised Nanaki that he would stop by to visit before returning home to The Edge. Tifa expected him every hour. As the day began to darken into evening, Tifa wondered what was keeping him. She imagined that he and Nanaki had gotten caught up in their discussions of Planet and Lifestream theory as they were prone to do. She knew that Vincent was interested in teaching, and she hoped that Nanaki would be able to convince him to pursue it, as she had been trying to do herself. Then her imaginative mind began to worry that he had been attacked by monsters on the road, or overtaken by thieves, never mind that she knew he was completely capable of taking care of himself, and also had a certain amount of invulnerability as well as immortality, thanks to Hojo's experimentations.
When she heard the familiar hum of his old truck, she ran to the window where she saw him park in the ally next to the building and get out holding various packages she assumed were for the bar. A few moments later, hearing his sudden footsteps on the stairs sent a thrill of trepidation she had been trying to quell for hours. She self-consciously ran her hand through her hair, and felt a little disoriented when her fingers felt the shortened strands. "Dear, Odin, please let him think I am still beautiful!"
Unable to handle the suspense anymore, Tifa ran to the door and opened it wide for him, then threw herself into his arms for a passionate welcoming kiss.
Vincent was stunned, but responded in kind, pushing her into the room and kicking the door shut with his foot. He deepened the kiss, thrusting his tongue inside her mouth hotly, showing her how much he had missed her, and raised his right hand to fondle her hair. He pulled away suddenly to look at her with the strangest most unidentifiable look on his face. Tifa knew it! He hated her new haircut.
"Don't look at me that way! It's only a haircut, it will grow back. Besides! I did it for you. I saw the most remarkable gift for you at Wall-Market General, and I just had to get it!"
"You've cut off your hair?" asked Vincent, dumbfounded.
"I had to sell it to get my gift for you. And just think, all that hair will be used to help some poor child who lost all of their hair, or maybe even several…I had quite a lot of hair, you remember. Don't you still think I'm beautiful without all that hot, heavy hair?"
"Your hair is gone?" Vincent looked around the room as if he might find it lying around somewhere and he might be able to magically reattach it.
"Yes. But think of the children! And my gift! You haven't seen it yet. Let me go get it."
"Wait," Vincent said, reaching out to grab her wrist. "I know, I didn't have the best reaction. But it's not what you think." He ran a hand through the dark tresses, familiarizing himself with the feel of it. "It will take some getting used to, but there isn't anything you could do that would make me think you weren't beautiful. You could shave it all off, and I would still think you are the loveliest creature I've ever seen." He kissed her forehead in emphasis. Then he withdrew a small box from one of the deep pockets in his cloak and handed it to her. "It's only this that threw me for a loop."
He watched her as she opened the present, and as her expression went from mild confusion, surprise and curiosity, to one of extreme happiness at the sight of two beautiful tortoise shell combs that she had to admit she had been eyeing just as covetously as Vincent's medallion—how had he known?—to an expression of horror and dismay.
"My hair! If only I hadn't cut it!" she exclaimed. But she hugged them to her bosom. "These are so beautiful, Vincent. I wanted them, but I didn't think I would ever get them. And now I have them and my hair is gone!" she laughed at the irony and Vincent joined her.
"Don't worry, love, you're hair will grow back."
"I know. And until then, you could wear them in your hair." Tifa smirked as she eyed the unkempt thick inky strands.
"I'll do no such thing, thank you very much!"
Tifa laughed again at his reaction. "Oh! I almost forgot your gift. I'll be right back." She zipped into the bedroom where she had left his gift lying on the dresser and then handed it to him. Before he could even get the ribbon off, she was telling him about it, and how the first time she saw it she knew she just had to get it for him. When it he had gotten it open, she asked him to go get his gun so that she could put it on for him and see how well it complimented it. Then she noticed that he wasn't wearing his holster. "Where is it?"
Instead of answering her, he sat down at the kitchen table and smiled at her. "Something smells delicious. I don't suppose that's my favorite dinner too? Why don't we put our gifts away and eat? You see I sold the gun to buy your combs."
"What! But you love that gun! You have to get it back!"
"I love you more, Tifa."
"Oh, I love you, too, Vincent!" She sniffled as tears began to well up in her eyes. "This is one of the nicest things you've done for me. I can't believe you sold your gun! At one point it was practically attached to your arm."
"Well, do not despair, love. I sold it to an old friend in Nibelheim. He promised me that if I ever wanted it back, all I'd have to do is ask. And when I told Nanaki about it, he said it was a good idea, since it symbolized my giving up that lifestyle and trying something new."
"What do you mean?"
"I've decided to become a teacher."
"Oh, Vincent!" Tifa cried out, "That's wonderful!" She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. "I'm so happy for you! I'm so happy for us! I don't think there's anything else that could make me any happier at this moment."
"Oh, there isn't?" Vincent asked, giving her a decidedly lascivious grin.
"Almost anything." She smiled back. Then she showed him just how happy she was with her lips, with her hands, and her whole body.
A/N: Obviously the characters aren't mine, and neither is the story really. I ripped some of the lines and dialogue straight from the story because they were so perfectly funny. Anyway, this was a long time coming, but I hope that some people find it enjoyable.