Summary: It is Tifa's first Valentine's Day with Cloud as a couple and she wonders just how she is going to celebrate it with him.
Entry 1 I wrote for Final Heaven discord server's event ClotiConfessions2020. This is supposed to be a Valentine's Day special, originally posted on tumblr and AO3, and I forgot to post it here ^^; (posting it now because I want to post the White Day version, but I can't until this one is posted lol)
Anyway, hope you enjoy! Comments/reviews are much appreciated :D Thanks!
Additional note: the setting a mix of modern au and in-game canon
February 14 was just around the corner and all Tifa could see were boxed chocolates, wrapped heart-shaped cookies, or a variety of cakes on display in pastry shops and bakeries. Even now, a week before Valentine's, there were already long lines of women and girls wanting to buy whatever chocolate they could get their hands on. She remembered how, when she was back in school, her classmates would prepare heartfelt chocolates for the boys they liked. She remembered how those boys would compare with each other how many chocolates they had gotten.
It wasn't Tifa's first time buying a chocolate for a boy; not when she had been giving him friendship chocolates for as long as she could remember. Every year, she would stand there in line with a couple chocolates on hand: one for her father, one for Cloud. Yet now, as she stood before the heart-shaped chocolates on display, she couldn't bring herself to choose which one she would buy.
In her hands was a red box tied with red ribbon. Inside it was a variety of high-quality heart-shaped chocolates. She checked the price tag.
"Two thousand gil?" she murmured to herself.
Beside it was a stack of boxes containing truffles coated in a special mirror-like glaze: 2,800 gil.
There were other boxes on display too—fancier ones, simpler ones. One was a two-tier black box with gold sakura patterns that no doubt contained one of the best confectioneries in the city. Another one was heart-shaped filled with all kinds of chocolates and the message Be My Valentine at the center.
Three thousand… Four… Six thousand gil?!
That was ridiculous. Who would in their right mind buy such an expensive chocolate just for Valentine's Day?
Tifa returned the box to its stack and quietly sighed. Of course; she had gone into one of the top-branded stores. What had she expected?
"Find anything yet?" a voice said from behind her.
Aerith was standing there, her long brown hair in its usual braid. She had offered to accompany her on her hunt for the perfect chocolate, but from Tifa's frown, she knew the hunt had been in vain.
"Should we look at another store then?" she offered.
They had scoured every inch of the shopping district, visiting all the pastry shops, bakeries, and confectionery stores they could find. They had even went inside some department stores in the hopes they would sell some kind of chocolate for Valentine's, but alas, not one of the stores had the chocolate Tifa had in mind. Not that she had any particular chocolate in mind. She did find some of the cookies and cupcakes in previous stores cute, with their kiss me or I love you messages, but they lacked…delicacy. They were not something she wanted to give him.
"Let's just go home for the day," Tifa said, leading her friend away from the display and exiting the store.
Outside was cold. Even in the last throes of winter people still crowded the street, especially school girls, giggling with their friends as they left one store or another, each with a bag in hand. Tifa stared at them for a few moments, her finger twitching and her lips pursing, before she covered her nose with her scarf and stuffed her gloved hands into her coat pockets.
"I never knew picking out a honmei chocolate would be this hard," Tifa mumbled through her scarf.
"That's why I said you should just make him one," Aerith replied, "instead of wasting all that money on some branded chocolate."
"Yeah, but—" Tifa began, but found herself speechless now that she was going home empty-handed.
This was something they had debated before. It wasn't that Tifa was against the idea. But…homemade? And on Valentine's Day? She knew people said a homemade honmei chocolate carried more meaning than store-bought one, but—
"What if I mess it up?"
"You won't mess it up," Aerith said. "He'll be happy with whatever you give him."
"That's the problem! He'll accept whatever I give him that sometimes I wonder if they're any good."
Aerith sighed through her nose. "Tifa, listen," her friend said firmly. "Everyone loves your cooking, including him. Has he ever said anything about not liking them?"
"Well, no, but—"
"And you often make cookies or cupcakes as freebies in your bar and everyone's always loved them."
"I guess, but—"
"Then there you have it. You won't mess it up. I'm sure of it!"
Aerith was beaming but Tifa bit her lower lip.
"But those weren't Valentine's chocolates."
"And why are Valentine's chocolates any different?"
Tifa met Aerith's gaze from the corner of her eyes. She found genuine curiosity in there and it made it all the more difficult to voice her reason, because it was lame and stupid and she was already twenty yet she still didn't know the first thing she should do when it came to the boy she liked.
Aerith was still looking at her and those piercing eyes really put her in the spot.
"Because they're supposed to be special?" Tifa mumbled. "I don't know. Kind of like heartfelt? Romantic? Personal?"
"Wouldn't it be more personal to give him your homemade chocolate rather than a store-bought one?" Aerith asked the question that had been bugging Tifa the most. Because yes, she knew that it would make the chocolate more personal and heartfelt and romantic and he would know the effort it took for her to give him one, but to put her feelings out there for the world to see… Tifa couldn't help but feel nervous every time she thought about it. With a store-bought chocolate, she wouldn't really need to make herself be so vulnerable, but with a homemade one, it would be her effort and her feelings mixed inside the chocolate, and if they weren't enough—
"There's that insecurity rearing its ugly head again," Aerith said, interrupting Tifa's train of thoughts.
Tifa glanced at her friend, who was staring ahead. They were already at the intersection. They would need to separate here, but Aerith was already grabbing her hand and said, "Come on. We're going to my house."
~ O ~
"First thing first," Aerith said when they had arrived in her house—a cute little house in a small neighborhood. Her mother was there, already preparing dinner in the kitchen. Tifa was invited, and after happily accepting it, Aerith immediately led her up to her room in the second floor. She grabbed a Valentine's-Day-special food magazine they had just bought in the bookstore along the way from her bag and sat on her bed, flipping through the pages until she reached the section on snacks and deserts. "We're going to look for inspiration."
Hesitantly, Tifa sat down beside Aerith and looked through the magazine with her. But there weren't anything new, only more cookies and cupcakes and shortcakes and cheesecakes and even more chocolate cakes and chocolate hearts and chocolate truffles. Cloud didn't have a sweet tooth, but he wouldn't say no to chocolate. Tifa didn't think there were any flavor he was particularly fond of or any he particularly hated. She had seen him eat chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, caramel, hazelnut over the years.
"Oh, this looks nice!" Aerith said, pointing to a certain box of chocolates at the bottom of the page. They looked like truffles coated in mirror glaze, much like the one Tifa had seen in the confectionery store before, but these ones looked uncannily familiar. There were 5 truffles in a box: green, red, blue, yellow, and purple. Where the truffles from before looked like tiny planets, these one looked to be so glossy and shining like materias.
"Materia chocolates," Aerith read the caption out loud.
"They really made materia-inspired chocolates," Tifa mused.
"These look really cool!" Aerith said. "I bet Zack would be ecstatic if he got these. Let me check how they're made."
Aerith grabbed her phone and started browsing for some recipe, while Tifa stared at the picture of the materia chocolates. They looked so real they were practically jumping out of the pages. Maybe Cloud would love to get one of these, too. However, even as she thought that, it was also not something that perfectly conveyed her feelings for him.
"Do you always give Zack homemade chocolates?" Tifa asked.
"Yep."
"Don't you ever feel nervous?"
Aerith looked up from her phone and met Tifa's gaze. "Sure I did," she said. "When I gave him my first homemade honmei chocolate, I broke into cold sweats wondering how he'd react. It was also my first time making chocolates, mind you. I didn't know how it'd taste. I was sure he wouldn't like it. But you know what? When I gave him those tiny chocolates all wrapped up in cheap plastic I bought in a convenience store just outside the neighborhood, he smiled. He had this bright smile—the brightest smile he had ever given me—and it was one of the most precious things I had ever seen. All my worries were completely erased."
Aerith had a small nostalgic smile on her face and Tifa found herself smiling back. "Sounds nice."
"It is," Aerith said. "So, even though this is your first Valentine together as a couple, don't be scared. You've been together with Cloud for years, and if you ask me, all I've ever seen is the face of a boy in love, even before you two started dating." Then she smirked. "And I'd say the same thing about you too."
Tifa felt her face heating up as she bit her lip. That was…old news. Tifa didn't remember when she stopped seeing him as a mere friend and started seeing him as a boy—when she stopped giving him homemade cookies and instead bought him chocolates from convenience stores on Valentine's Day every year; when she started looking at the girls at school confessing their feelings on this particular day and wondering if she would ever have the courage to do that.
"Aww, now you're all embarrassed," Aerith said with a teasing smile, dipping her head to peer into Tifa's face, because Tifa, not knowing what to do with herself, had hid it behind her dark hair.
"Shut up," Tifa said but she was smiling and she couldn't stop it.
Aerith grinned. "Come on. Let's make the best chocolate that will make Cloud speechless."
~ O ~
Valentine's Day rolled in before she knew it and finally, the chocolates were done and ready and placed inside a cute yellow box she had found in the convenience store outside Aerith's neighborhood. When she had not been tending to her bar, Tifa had been spending her days with Aerith in her home or in the florist Aerith owned just down the street from the 7th Heaven, trying to come up with an idea on what kind of chocolates Tifa would want to give to Cloud. It hadn't been until Yuffie strolled down the street and said that she had just seen Cloud and Zack riding their chocobos out of town that an idea struck her.
"Chocobos?" Aerith had asked her.
Tifa had nodded. "Cloud has been saying how he missed riding out on a chocobo, so maybe I can make a chocobo-themed chocolate?"
"Oh! That's a nice idea! But, how will that work, exactly?"
Tifa had the image in her mind. A chocobo standing on a field of grass, with a simple message on the side, with one character on one square block of chocolate. She later spent most of the remaining days until Valentine's Day in Aerith's house, finalizing her chocolate idea and finally making it.
And now it was morning and they had promised to meet in the bar. Tifa was killing time by wiping the counter even though it was spotless clean, because her heart was hammering and her hands were sweating and she needed to keep herself busy lest she'd puke.
It was weird. They had known each other since they were children, been together since anyone could remember, and this wasn't the first time she had given him Valentine's chocolates. And though they had been going out for almost a year now—a fact she was still amazed of until this day—it didn't stop the butterflies from wreaking havoc in her stomach.
It was going to be all right. He would come in. She would give him his chocolates. And they would live happily ever and after—
Dammit! This is not the time for that!
Tifa braced herself against the counter, letting out a loud sigh through her lips. Had Aerith given her chocolate to Zack yet? Tifa wondered how it had gone. She and Yuffie had pitched in to help make them—those materia chocolates. Tifa chuckled. She couldn't believe Aerith actually managed to make them. Though in the end it didn't end up looking like the pictures, because the mirror glaze was quite hard to make. They had just coated it in cocoa, strawberry, or matcha powder, nuts, and other sprinkles. Tifa could just imagine Zack's astonished look when Aerith handed it to him.
How would Cloud look when she gave him his chocolate?
She checked the clock on the wall and was surprised to find it had already been half an hour past the time they were supposed to meet.
Tifa sat up straight and grabbed her phone. Did Cloud say anything about being late?
Just as she was about to check her mails, however, the door to the bar opened, and there stood Cloud, in his dark coat, his blond hair disheveled. His appearance was so sudden that all nervousness and anxiety were driven away from Tifa's mind.
"Cloud?" she exclaimed.
"Sorry, I—" He was breathless. His shoulders were slightly slumped, his chest heaving, as though he had run a mile. When he finally looked at her, she saw that his face was flushed, his jaws set, and with eyes that looked straight toward her, Cloud took several long strides until he reached the counter. But before she could do or say anything, he had procured from the pocket of his coat a single red rose, which he offered to her. "Happy Valentine's Day."
Tifa blinked once, or twice, absently taking the rose from Cloud's fingers with a quiet thank you. It happened too fast. Her brain was still trying to catch up with the sudden change of events.
This wasn't how it was supposed to happen, was it?
Her eyes were drawn toward the rose. A red rose, still fresh. Cloud had probably just bought it then. Or he could have plucked it somewhere in his rush to see her.
Tifa looked at him, really looked at him, and she realized the flush in his cheeks was more than due to exertion or the cold. The redness that had spread to his neck and ears, the pursed lips, the stiff back—Cloud had been nervous. Had he been too nervous that he ended up buying the rose on a whim? Had he bought it to alleviate his nervousness?
Whatever the reason was, Cloud's unexpected gift made her giggle.
Her laugh seemed to unwind some tension off of him and Cloud looked at her in confusion. "Tifa?"
"Sorry, it's just—" Tifa smiled. "Shouldn't I be the one to give you something on Valentine's Day?"
"Ah—" Cloud said, as though he had completely forgotten about that and the realization made him blush even more.
Tifa couldn't stop herself. Her smile turned to a grin, which turned to a chuckle and a laugh. It seemed as though Cloud's purpose in life was to make her laugh or smile to death because her heart was already filled to the brim with love for this awkward boy she had known all her life, and if he didn't stop blushing, Tifa feared her love for him would spill and they wouldn't know what to do with her.
Tifa placed the rose on the counter and gave him the yellow box of chocolate she had kept in the fridge. A simple yellow rectangular box with printed chocobo silhouettes, tied in a simple yellow ribbon. On its front was a handwritten card that said: Happy Valentine's Day. Thank you for always being here with me.
Cloud looked at her, then at the box, before taking it in his hands and carefully undoing the ribbon. Inside were rows and rows of square blocks of chocolates of various colors: whites, blues, greens, yellows, reds, and dark chocolates, all forming a pixelated form of a chocobo standing on a grassy field under a vast blue sky, with the characters I, heart, and U on the side.
"Did you make this?"
"Is it weird?"
Cloud shook his head and when he looked at her, she saw him smile the brightest smile he had ever given her that made time seem to stop. Aerith was right. It was the most precious thing Tifa had ever seen.
"This is the best thing ever," he said, and he pulled her into a quiet kiss, before whispering, "Thank you."
~ END ~