Disclaimer: ... you know the drill...
So, it's been quite a while since I've continued this fic, but I'll TRY to make up for it soon. So... here's chapter 4!
Chapter 4 - First Tasks
-Later in the morning-
Tifa slightly shifted in her sleep, groaning as the blasting sound got louder. Tifa and Reno had both gone to sleep about an hour after Cloud's 'visit'. And of course, Tifa had chosen her bedroom, put all of her things into it neatly, and drifted off to sleep.
She sighed annoyingly and looked down at her alarm clock.
It read '9:21 AM'.
Sure, Tifa usually woke up early, but she was very tired from the party. She opened her eyes and shoved her pillow over her face, as the horrible music got louder and louder.
Who in the world knew Reno liked rock music...
Huffing in frustration, she finally threw off the bed covers and walked hastily over to the door (wearing her boxers and a black singlet).
Once she opened the door, she stumbled over to Reno's bedroom door and was about to get ready to knock, only realising that the door was slightly open. She quietly poked her head through the gap and stared in disbelief at the scene.
Reno, THE Reno, was laying quietly on his bed, READING A BOOK.
Reno READS? Now that's something new...
Reno still hadn't noticed her, and continued reading. Tifa squinted her eyes a bit to see that he was reading...
Harry... ...POTTER? Oh, dear lord...
Tifa bit her lip to stop herself from giggiling madly, and looked around the room for any hint of music. Nope, Reno's room was dead quiet.
VERY strange, indeed.
Sighing quietly, she took a step back from the door and headed over to Elena's room. Just like Reno's room, the door was slightly open. These people don't seem to care about their privacy.
Tifa peeked through the gap and tilted her head a bit. Elena was still laying on her bed, sound asleep.
Must be a heavy sleeper.
She frowned slightly as she stepped back, and walked quietly over to Rude's room. Unlike Elena's and Reno's, Rude had his door locked, and oddly, had his door covered with the signs 'DO NOT DISTURB''PRIVATE' and other weird signs.
Tifa knocked on the door three times and waited patiently, groaning quietly as the rock music probably had hit 'full blast'.
How can Elena SLEEP through that music?
She noticed the door knob had turned, and Rude's head poke out of the gap between the door and well... the door frame.
Tifa bit her lip againas she noticed Rude was dressed in his... 'ahem' jammies and tried not to laugh a bit.
Of course, that'd just be plain rude...
"Uh, Rude? You know that loud music?" He nodded slowly. "Well, have you been playing it, because-" She stopped as she notice Rude shake his head. It was then, she noticed that she must've woken Rude up.
"Oh, wait. Did I wake you up? Oh, sorry! It's just that I got woken up from the music before, and I thought it was either Reno, Elena, or you, but I guess it isn't..." she trailed off, mumbling to herself.
Rude nodded his head, before slowly closing the door and locking it.
Tifa chewed the inside of her cheek for a while, still standing at Rude's door, but looking down. Her head cocked to the side slightly, as she finally knew what woke her up.
Grr... when I get my hands on you Cloud, just you wait...
She began walking towards the door, to go tell Cloud off for blasting such LOUD and HORRIBLE music in the morning.
As she was about to turn the door knob, she jumped slightly as a hand was placed on her shoulder, and gently turned her around.
"Miss me?" the redhead asked, giving a goofy grin.
Tifa took a deep breath and placed a hand on her chest.
"Gosh, Reno! Don't scare me like that," she told him, looking at the ceiling for a moment.
"Did Chocobo Head wake yah up?" Reno asked her, taking his hand off her shoulder and leaning against the wall.
She nodded slightly while knitting her eyebrows a bit.
"Okay, I'll go take care of Hippy Freak, then," he muttered as he took off.
Tifa rose an eyebrow and crossed her arms, ignoring the fact the Reno called Cloud 'Hippy-Freak' and 'Chocobo Head'.
"Shouldn't I be doing that, seeming that I'm your slave for a month?" she unwantingly insisted, not knowing why she asked that question.
Reno stopped for a while, and tapped his chin with a finger.
"Oh! That reminds me, I have a different job for you."
He gave a big grin and gently pushed her down a pair of stairs, which oddly, she had missed when she first entered the apartment.
-Later-
"Me and my big, fat, stupid mouth..." Tifa grumbled to herself while scrubbing at the basement floor furiously. "How in the world did they get a basement in the apartment, anyway?" she wondered out loud.
The basement which had belonged to Reno, Elena and Rude was pretty dusty, and by the looks of it, pretty old, unlike the apartment. She placed the sponge back in the bucket before drying her hands with a towel. As she bent down to pick up an object, see gave a large sneeze and scrunched her nose up. She looked to the left and noticed a brown frame, with a photo inside, and with curiosity, she picked it up.
There were three kids, around the same age, playing on the beach. Tifa immediately recognized them as Rude, Elena, and Reno.
The first kid was about the age of eleven, and was.. bald with sunglasses, also wearing a shirt, with swimming trunks.
The second kid was a girl with extremely long blonde hair, who looked about the age of ten. Her hair was probably even longer than Tifa's hair, to Tifa's shock. The girl was smiling at the camera, and had a yellow bathing suit on.
The last kid had red, fiery hair in a short pony-tale, and was about the age of thirteen, wearing only swim shorts while sticking his tongue out at the the camera.
Wait a minute... Reno's older than Rude? Well, that's also something new.
Tifa smiled at the photo for a moment, before dusting it off carefully, and placing it on a desk nearby. She continued cleaning for a moment, until something caught her eye.
...A red box?...
Indeed, it was a red box, with soft velvet. Infact, it looked practically new. Tifa was about to look inside, but...
"Didn't your mother ever tell you that snooping's rude?"
Tifa spun around and bit her lip as Reno came walking over, and took the box out of her hands. He slipped it into a pocket in his jacket and nodded towards her.
"Dinner's ready... 'Laney... ...cooked." He shuddered for a moment.
Dinner time already?
"Is... something wrong?" Tifa asked, still wondering what was in that box.
She stood up slowly, dusting off her skirt, and walking over to the stairs.
"You don't know what happens when Elena tries to cook?" he asked, following her from behind.
"Er... no." she replied as they reached the apartment.
"Well, dinner just looks like lumps of coal." he told her, walking up to the dining table and sitting down. Tifa followed suit and sat down opposite of Reno, waiting for the 'glorious dinner of Elena' as Reno put it.
In a few moments, Rude came out of... nowhere and sat down next to Reno, followed by Elena who emerged out of the kitchen with... lumps of coal on plates.
Elena looked quite pleased with herself, as she had cooked MUCH better than she usually does.
Tifa stared at her plate of coal and looked back at Elena's face of excitment for everyone to try her... dinner. But Tifa didn't like hurting people's feelings...
"Hey, flunky. How about you get us some pie? There's a frozen one in the fridge." Reno ordered her, ignoring the pouts coming from Elena's face.
Tifa gace him a stern look. "Maybe if you stop calling me flunky."
"Why not? You are my flunky after all... or would you rather sex slave?" he suggested, ignoring the stares coming from Elena and Rude.
Tifa stared at Reno with wide eyes. "Flunky will do just fine, Reno." she told him, getting annoyed every ounce of a second, before rising from her seat and walking into the kitchen.
Elena scolded Reno as he continued making that stupid grin as Tifa's figure disappeared into the kitchen.
"Reno, what is-"
"'Laney, why can't you ever mind your own business?" Reno gave a know-it-all look and grinned fakely at the blonde.
"B-But-" she protested.
"...He does have a point." Rude finally spoke up from the corner of the table.
Reno shot him a 'grateful' look, while Elena glared at Rude.
"WHAT-" Elena was cut off once more as Tifa came out of the room with a dish in her left hand. She walked over to the table and grabbed a shimmering knife from the table, examining it.
Reno thought she looked very creepy doing so.
After about a second or so, Tifa walked over to Elena, cut a bit of apple pie, and set it down on the plate in front of Elena. She skipped Reno for a moment, and cut a piece for Rude, ignoring the odd gestures coming from Reno.
Finally, Tifa walked over to Reno, and was about to cut a piece of pie which was about as thin as a crumb, but noticed Reno trying to take a glimpse down her shirt.
...Which only resulted in Reno getting more than his share of pie all over his face.
He could only hear the sound of Tifa's angry footsteps towards the door in the silent room.
Reno looked at the door.
"Erm, Teef? Don't you want some dessert? Teef?"
-Meanwhile-
Tifa could just hear the faint giggles coming from Elena, and Reno trying to make 'small talk' with her from the other side of the door.
She decided that she could have a rest from following Reno's orders, and couldn't care less if Elena, Rude or Reno found her. It's not that she was going to hide or anything, she was just going to pay a visit to a friend.
Let's see... how about Cloud?...
As if Cloud could hear her thoughts, coincidentally, the apartment next to Reno's began to have blasting music coming from it.
...Okay... maybe I'll visit Vincent's apartment.
Tifa had visited Vincent occasionally ever since he had moved in to 'hide' from Yuffie. Tifa had no idea why Vincent overreacted.
Making up her mind, Tifa walked down towards a door, which was right next to Cloud's apartment.
Coincidence, much?
Tifa knocked on the door quietly, and waited for a few moments, only not getting an answer. She furrowed her eyebrows and gently knocked once more, still not getting an answer.
"Strange... it's not like Vincent. He never goes out, and usually he doesn't take that long to answer the door." she mumbled to herself, still waiting.
Giving up, Tifa slowly opened the door to see what the problem was, and stepped into the goth-like apartment. Everything was dark - Vincent style. Maroon walls, black cushions and designs on the maroon walls that would give anybody nightmares.
"Oh VINNIE!"
Tifa's eyes nearly turned as large as dinner plates, if that was even possible.
So she decided that Vincent and Yuffie were not stuck in a closet this time, or at least wouldn't like to check if they were. As Tifa hastily walked out of the apartment, she checked her watch which read '7:37'. She wasn't ready to go back to Reno's slavework, so she walked over to the elevator doors, waited, and then walked in while pressing the '1' button.
Walks always set Tifa in a better mood.
-Later-
Tifa shoved her hands in her jacket pockets as she walked past the club she worked in. Daisies was always closed on a weekend, so there was no help needed there. It was dark and windy - two things Tifa didn't really mind. As she walked into an alley she slowly paused and looked around cautiously as she heard a noise. She turned to run, but was caught by a pair of large hands. She stuggled to get out of the strangers' grasp, but only failed.
The stranger spun her around and grabbed her by the wrists, exposing a large man in tattered clothes, also wearing an eyepatch on his right eye. He grinned sickly and leaned forward, looking her straight in the eye.
"Well, well, well... what have we here?"
His breath reeked of beer and tobacco and by the looks of it, he hadn't had ate a proper meal in days, hell, even weeks.
Tifa felt horribly disappointed in herself as she tried to lose his deathgrip on her, but yet again, failed. She had won second place in the woman's boxing team at highschool, was the fastest runner in athletics, and had learned karate - though she can't escape from a gangster in an abandoned alley?
It had looked like the gangster was about to do something to her, right until a familiar figure can from behind and aimed a fist at the gangster's jaw.
Yep, sorta a cliffy! Do you know who that person is? Well, I won't say... but it's pretty obvious. :-D Hehe... aren't I evil for adding a cliffy? Well... maybe not, because I gotta hit the sack in ten minutes. (yawn) Anyway, I know the first couple of bits were pointless and I bet most of this chapter probably sucked, and hardly made up for the long delay, but oh well... Also, check out my new story 'Technology'. It's about what the characters of FFVII and AC do when they get their hands on a computer! Well.. review!
EDIT: Er.. yes, I um, mispell bold with bald a lot. Lol. Thanks for pointing out that valen.locke. xD
