Title: Waiting for You

Author: Lovely Lady

Genre: Romance / Drama

Rating: T

Pairing: Cloud / Tifa

Disclaimer: Thanks to everyone who left reviews and thanks to all of my readers! Sorry for the long wait, but I thank you for your patience and willingness to stay with this story! Enjoy!

Chapter 6: Unbearable Embarrassment

Tifa woke from a deep sleep to the smell of delicious, deep roasted coffee wafting in from the kitchen. She smiled to herself as she thought of Laurence, whom she could picture right now with his severe bed-head, making the delicious coffee that always put her in a good mood. Just the smell of it made her want to spring out of bed. With these thoughts, Tifa rose from her comfortable queen-sized bed and stretched her arms over her head.

It had been quite some time since she had consistently gotten a good night of sleep; of course, she had Laurence to thank for that. It seemed that she had a lot of things to thank him for. It had been almost a week since Vincent and Yuffie's wedding and since then, Laurence had tried keeping her mind off of Cloud and the little get-together at the newlywed's cabin in the mountains.

She thought about how much Laurence had helped her through the tough times as she walked over to her adjoining bathroom and quickly brushed her teeth. Even though her and Laurence had been friends for quite some time now, Tifa still felt the need to at least make herself look presentable and not someone with bad breath and bed-head herself. Plus, it was just plain good manners.

Apparently Laurence didn't feel the same way because when Tifa finally finished brushing her teeth, pulled her hair back into a loose bun and put on her soft pink robe, she stepped out to the kitchen and saw Laurence's derriere dressed in white boxers poking out of the refrigerator. The opened refrigerator door was in the way and prevented her from seeing the upper part of his body that was leaning into the fridge, but she could still easily see his legs. Wow, I've never notice how muscular Laurence's legs are. As her gaze gradually worked its way up, the worst possible thing in a situation like this could have happened. Laurence stood up and glared at her with a questioning brow over the refrigerator door. This questioning look quickly turned into a lazy smirk.

"So, I take it you are thoroughly enjoying yourself?"

Tifa couldn't help but blush madly as she rushed over to the hot-brewing coffee. Even though she could still feel Laurence's eyes following her, she purposefully avoided his gaze. Tifa cleared her throat. "You know, you could put some clothes on now and then." She was grateful that when Laurence did stand up to meet her gaze, he had also been wearing a white undershirt.

Despite her obvious embarrassment, Laurence was reveling in it and couldn't help but poke at her a little. "Well now, that statement does not back up what I just saw you doing. You, Tifa Lockheart, were clearly, undeniably, indisputably checking me out."

She had turned her back to him as she grabbed a mug from the cabinet and started pouring herself a cup of coffee. When she heard his comment, she scoffed. "Yeah right, Laurence. I was not checking you out. I was clearly just surprised that you are comfortable enough in my apartment to strut around in just your boxers and undershirt."

Laurence grabbed the orange juice he had been searching for and closed the door with his foot as he walked beside Tifa to grab a glass from the top cabinet. He smiled widely and chuckled. "Now, for all of the years that you have known me, you know that I'm most comfortable when I'm in my boxers." He hesitated for only a second. "But I wouldn't blame you for checking my ass out, anyways. Women have often complimented my backside."

Tifa sighed and turned to stare back at him. She ignored the latter part of his statement. "Are you sure you want to tell your future girlfriends that you're most comfortable in your boxers?"

He only rolled his eyes. "Okay, well besides being naked. But I didn't think you'd appreciate it if I was walking around your house nude…unless you're really interested," Laurence jested.

When Tifa didn't respond and, instead, just turned to grab the sugar from the pantry, Laurence continued. "Oh, come on, Tifa. You can't tell me that you're comfortable wearing clothes on all of the time." He drank from his orange juice. "Tell me you've at least slept naked before. Either with a boyfriend or by yourself."

Tifa looked over her shoulder and glared at Laurence. She gave a firm, "No."

Laurence looked shocked. "What? You've never even thought about it?"

After grabbing the sugar, Tifa walked back towards Laurence and her coffee and set them both on the counter. She let out a deep breath and seemed to hesitate before answering. "Look, I don't really feel like discussing right now if I think about sleeping naked in my bed, with or without someone else in it. Now can we talk about something else please?"

Okay, so he'd let her off the hook for now. To save her further from the discomfort Tifa was already consumed in, if that was possible, Laurence nudged his head towards the refrigerator behind him. "Okay, your refrigerator is out of food. Should we go out for breakfast?"

Somehow, Tifa was not surprised that the food in her refrigerator was almost completely gone. Laurence ate just about anything. She turned back to her coffee and stirred some sugar in. "Fine, we'll go out for a quick breakfast. Then, you and I are going to go shopping." When she knowingly saw Laurence's face fall, she smirked and repeated herself. "Yes, that's right. You heard me correctly, Laurence. We, which is plural word, are going shopping for the entire day. Since you don't have a job right now, you really don't have an excuse."

Laurence was sputtering for words. "What? Well what about your job? How do you live in an apartment as nice as this and have extra money to go shopping if you don't even go to work? Do you just show up whenever you feel like it?"

Tifa placed down her stirring spoon and took a hearty sip of her delicious coffee. She put down the mug with a smile. "I took the next few weeks off when you told me you were staying here. And, besides, they don't need me there right now anyways. They were actually glad I was taking a small vacation, considering I haven't had one since I was employed."

With that said, Tifa breezed past Laurence with mug in hand and called out behind her, "You have thirty minutes to get ready for breakfast and a serious day of shopping." Before she had completely disappeared into her room, she turned around to make sure he was listening. Laurence was busy giving her a scowl, but that meant he was indeed listening. Before turning around again, she chuckled and looked down at his boxers. "And for God's sake, put some pants on!"

---

Laurence wasn't going to admit it yet, if ever, but he was actually having fun shopping with Tifa. Which was weird, considering that all of his other girlfriends that had tried taking him shopping were extremely whiny and demanding. Plus, they made him carry their bags. Tifa didn't have a problem carrying her own, although Laurence relieved her of some of them after they started consuming her body.

They had spent a majority of the day laughing and recalling stories of their past while they browsed through an endless number of stores. Tifa had bought a new winter coat, among other things, and a purple wool cap with a flower on it, which she was wearing now. Laurence thought she looked adorable.

The two of them had just gotten out of a clothing store, where Tifa had bought at least $700 worth of clothes, and had finally sat down on a nearby bench for a quick rest. The streets were still wet from the night's previous rain, but overall, it was a beautiful morning to spend outside. Tifa had grabbed her water bottle from her purse and offered it to Laurence. When he politely shook his head, she took a long swig from it and twisted the cap back on. She twisted towards him among the many bags that surrounded them. "So, are you dead as of now from all of the shopping?"

He hesitated before he answered and considered his choices carefully. If he quickly replied that he was having a great time, which he was, Tifa would get this great big smile on her lovely face and want to take him for five more hours of intense shopping. But, if he said he wasn't having fun, Laurence knew she would joke about it saying that it wasn't that bad, but on the inside feel a little disappointed. Laurence didn't want her to be upset, plus he was having a good time, so he decided to be honest and said, "Yeah, it's actually a lot more fun than I'd expected."

And just as he expected, Tifa's face blossomed into a smile. "That's good to hear because I'm having a great time too." They continued smiling at each other when suddenly Tifa jumped off of the bench and gathered up her bags. "Okay, well then, if you're really having that much fun, why stop now?" She started strolling down the sidewalk to the next store.

Laurence shook his head and chuckled briefly before standing up and gathering the rest of the bags near his feet. When he had caught up to Tifa, who was a fast walker, he noticed that she had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk. As he approached her, Tifa suddenly spun around and smiled nervously. "Alright, well, I'm sure you could use a little break from me. How about you go to the bookstore across the street and I'll just finish up some of my shopping in another store." She looked really embarrassed, despite her sad attempt at covering, whatever she was covering, up. "I'll meet you right here in an hour, sound good?"

He wasn't stupid and he also knew that Tifa was the worst at hiding things, but he spared her further embarrassment and pretended to roll along with her plan. "Okay, I'll be across the street in one of the stores if you need me. Plus, I have my cell on me too." Since it was obvious that Tifa was waiting for him to make the first move and leave, Laurence turned to cross the street. While crossing, he briefly glanced over his shoulder to see Tifa walking into one of the stores. When he tried to read what the store was, a car to his left honked, so Laurence picked up his pace and nearly ran to the other side of the road to avoid being run over.

---

Whew, that was a close one. Tifa obviously felt embarrassed if she was shopping for lingerie with Laurence around, so she was relieved to find that he was at a safe distance in a different store. She had been browsing for a good thirty minutes now and had found quite a number of items on sale. She thought about what they had been talking about back in her apartment about her not sleeping naked.

The truth was, Tifa pondered, was that she preferred sleeping in her bra and underwear. She had, more than once, considered trying to sleep in a bed naked, but she felt too self-conscious. As for sleeping naked with a guy, well she had never been in that situation before and didn't think an opportunity like that would arise any time soon.

She stepped out of the dressing room, deciding to purchase at least ten pairs of underwear and five bras. Yeah, Tifa thought, she was a virgin. She had never really thought about doing it with someone other than Cloud when AVALANCHE was still together. But even then, the thought had never crossed her mind and she had never met anyone that had made her want to.

As she walked up to the cashier and placed her undergarments on the counter, a picture of Laurence suddenly popped into her head. Wait, where had that come from?

---

After spending about five minutes each in about seven different stores, Laurence had almost completely given up on shopping entirely. He felt absolutely no point in being in a store where he did not buy something. So as Laurence sighed and blindly walked into the adjacent store, he didn't notice it was a jewelry store until the bright lights reflecting off of the diamonds struck him in the eye. When he finally noticed his surroundings, an immediate thought popped into his head. Wasn't it Tifa's birthday soon?

As he browsed through the store, he didn't notice anything particularly eye-catching that was also not worth his arm and leg. The cases were filled with magnificently cut diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds that were placed onto necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, etc. Laurence continued to scope for the next couple of minutes until he noticed a yellow diamond bracelet displayed to his far right. He went up closer to inspect it, and immediately he was enraptured by its simplistic beauty. He knew that if he were to buy something for Tifa, it would have to be pretty simple; she was not one to wear glaring and over-excessive jewelry. He, as well, preferred the same on her. "It's perfect."

When an elderly salesperson approached him and asked if he was interested in the bracelet, Laurence gave him a smile and nodded. "Oh," said the salesman, "that's a fine one you've picked out. Very classic and very beautiful."

Laurence could not have agreed more. Although he found out it was a bit pricey, at the same time he knew that Tifa would absolutely love it.

After he had gotten everything settled and had paid the friendly salesman, the bracelet was placed in a classic velvet and rectangular box. The box was then put in a small bag and given to Laurence. He thanked the man and left the store with a smile on his face.

He knew that Tifa hadn't really ever gotten a serious birthday present, even though she would never admit to it. Even her parents who were dead now, she had admitted to him once, hadn't given her any special birthday parties when she was young. So Laurence had to admit that he couldn't wait to see her reaction later.

Laurence glanced at his watch and noticed he still had ten minutes until he was supposed to meet up with Tifa. He didn't feel like shopping anymore, now that he'd bought that bracelet for her. So he crossed the street and went looking for the store he last saw her go into. Since that car had honked at him earlier, he hadn't been able to make out the name of the store that Tifa had entered, but when looking at the possible choices, he immediately recognized the pink background on the sign over the store. It was a…lingerie store?

Oh, wow. Laurence had not been expecting this. So he grinned like a little boy and couldn't help but peek into the store window to see if she was still in there. What he saw was what seemed like a million racks of colorful bras, underwear and a whole bunch of other transparent, lacy, satin, velvet undergarments worn to seduce a man like him (it wasn't like he didn't recognize the items in there after being with so many women). None of the items that he could pick out were in the slightest foreign to him. He quickly scanned the rest of the store and noticed Tifa walking up to the counter. Laurence couldn't wipe the grin off of his face for the life of him as he casually opened and entered the store full of colorful lingerie.

---

"That'll be $250, miss," the young and petite cashier said in her high-pitched voice as she smiled up at Tifa and started neatly placing her undergarments in a pretty pink bag. Yikes, Tifa thought, she had never spent so much at this store in one shopping day. Oh well, she took advantage of the sales and was overall happy with her many purchases. Tifa started searching through her purse for her wallet, but after some time, for some reason she couldn't seem to find it. She murmured a quick apology to the lady as she started pulling random things from her purse and placed them on the counter. I really need to sort through my purse and empty some needless stuff.

Just as she felt the corner of her leather wallet and started pulling it out, she must have knocked off her sunglasses from the counter because she heard a clatter on the ground. Tifa groaned as she bent down to pick it up, but as she was squatting, she came into contact with a pair of legs in jeans and muddy brown boots. She knew only too well whose those dirty boots belonged to, because she had yelled at him this morning for wearing them in her recently cleaned apartment. Laurence.

She was more embarrassed than anything at being caught by Laurence in a lingerie store, as she quickly snatched her sunglasses from the floor and practically hit the counter when she was rising to stand up. Not until she stood completely erect was she prepared to burn up from humiliation and angrily confront Laurence for following her in the store. Tifa expected to meet his emerald green eyes and see a smug look on his… But no. Laurence wasn't even looking at her. He was too busy flirting with the cashier. Ugh, the nerve of him!

From the looks of it, she should have just stayed crouched on the floor forever because regardless of where she was, neither of them would have noticed her at all. No, Laurence had leaned his elbow on the counter and was using his masculine charm that every woman was infatuated by, with his lazy smile and dazzling eyes. And the girl over the counter wasn't helping! She was too busy being giggling and being ensnared by Tifa's best friend that Tifa could have well stormed out of the store with her stolen lingerie.

After yanking the credit card from her bulky leather wallet, Tifa conspicuously cleared her throat and practically poked the young woman in the eye with her card. Finally grabbing the woman's attention, who looked as if she just got out of a trance, blushed violently and reached out to grab Tifa's credit card.

But before she could do that, a hand gently grasped Tifa's arm and pulled it away from the cashier's reach. Laurence's husky voice filled the silence in the store, "Let me get that for you, hon." He pulled out his own credit card from the wallet in the back pocket of his jeans and offered it to the lady.

Tifa turned to him and glared at him. "Are you kidding me? There's no way I'm letting you buy me…"

"You know, you're absolutely right…"

Tifa let out a sigh of relief and was about to give the still-blushing lady her credit card, when Laurence spoke up again.

"I should at least know what's in a bag before I buy something. I believe I'm going to have to approve whatever it is you're buying, Tifa. I wouldn't want to spend my money on something useless, after all." Before she could react, Laurence was already snooping through the pink bag full of her bras and underwear.

Shocked, Tifa snatched the bag away and gave Laurence a purely evil look. She was too shocked, in fact, to say any words at the moment. The grin on his face was larger than any she had ever seen. Tifa just wanted to take her bag, crawl up in a hole and stay there until the end of time. Apparently that was a sign for big-mouth Laurence to continue talking. "I most definitely approve, Miss Tifa. Those items are most definitely not useless. You know, for someone who doesn't even sleep naked, I'm a bit surprised that I saw so much lace in there, missy."

Fumed beyond belief, Tifa continued to stare at him as he gracefully slipped his credit card to the giggling saleswoman. It took her a matter of seconds to complete the transaction as she slid Laurence the receipt to sign. He gave the young woman a grin as he quickly scribbled his signature, was given back his credit card and took the bag of Tifa's lingerie. Tifa was still in the same spot she was in even when Laurence had started walking towards the door. "Sweetie, are you coming or not?" And then because he couldn't seem to stop himself, he added, "Don't tell me you want to buy even more lace than what's already in this bag. I don't know if my paycheck covers that, honey."

Enraged, Tifa finally started stalking out of the store. As she caught up to Laurence, she angrily snatched the bag out his hands and continued stalking past him and down the street. Her shopping was over. Tifa did not even bother looking back to see if Laurence was following her. When she finally reached her apartment, she stormed up the stairs and clawed through her purse and found her keys.

Quickly unlocking her door, Tifa yanked the door open. Not even bothering to close it, she stampeded into her room and slammed the door behind her, locking it. A few seconds later, she heard Laurence's chuckling echoing in her apartment as he closed the apartment door behind him and dropped Tifa's shopping bags on the floor. She faintly heard him yell to her, "Hey, Tifa, you can't honestly tell me that the scene in the store was not funny."

Sitting on her bed and now feeling completely humiliated, Tifa heard footsteps approaching her bedroom door. Laurence tried joggling the doorknob, but upon realizing it was locked, he lightly knocked on the door. "Hey, Tifa, are you okay?" The first time he said this, a trace of laughter was still hinted in his voice. When Tifa didn't respond, the laughter in his voice had vanished and his voice was suddenly filled with concern.

---

As he stood outside Tifa's bedroom behind a locked door, Laurence softly swore under his breath. God, he hadn't meant to embarrass her that badly. Laurence had only started flirting with that salesgirl because he wanted to see Tifa riled up a little. But then, when he peered into Tifa's bag of lingerie, he had been a bit surprised to find colorful assortments of lace and satin. It had shaken him up a little too much, in fact, that he didn't know what to do with that sudden rush of desire for her. So, how did he react?

Laurence immediately regretted how much of an ass he had been in the store. He knew that Tifa was shy and sensitive about certain things, but he had continued to plow on anyways. It was going to take a while for Tifa to come out of her shell and approach him again.

With a deep sigh, Laurence tried again by knocking on Tifa's door. "Listen, Tifa, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you or make you angry. I just got a little carried away, that's all." He paused and waited for a reply. "Will you forgive me?"

When he heard no answer, Laurence gave up and walked over to the living room and collapsed on the white couch that he normally slept on. He felt genuinely sorry for what he had done and hoped that Tifa was willing to forgive him.

Laurence peered out over the couch to the clock in the kitchen and saw that it was already 7:30 PM. He settled back on the couch and decided to rest his eyes for a little bit. As soon as he closed his eyes, however, an image of Tifa in black lace lingerie filled his mind. Laurence forced his eyes open and exhaled deeply. It was going to be a long night.

---

Laurence woke up the next morning all groggy from a restless sleep. He had dreamt about Tifa. And about lingerie. And about lingerie on Tifa. Disregarding the fact that sunlight filled the apartment, from the silence, he took it that Tifa was still sleeping. However, when he checked the watch that he hadn't taken off last night, he noticed it was 10:32 AM. Tifa was a morning person and never slept past 8:00.

Confused, he rose from the couch and was about to go the bathroom down the hall when he noticed that Tifa's bedroom door was open. Laurence walked over to the open door and peered in. Tifa wasn't in her bedroom or her bathroom. Confused, he turned around and started making his way to the bathroom when a small white piece of paper caught his eye lying on the black counter.

Laurence walked up to the note and rubbed his tired eyes before he read note neatly written cursive.

Laurence,

I went out to run some errands. If you get hungry (which I'm sure you will), eat whatever's left in the refrigerator that you haven't already consumed. I'll be back around 12:00.

Tifa

P.S. Don't make a mess in my apartment.

Surprised and grateful that Tifa hadn't completely bashed at him in the note, Laurence walked to the bathroom near the front door to brush his teeth. He had nothing to do but wait until Tifa's arrival to fully and properly apologize to her.

---

Tifa, yet again, scrambled for her keys in her crowded purse while struggling to hold all of the grocery bags in her hands. Laurence must have heard her approaching, because he had already opened the door and had taken the bags from her arms before she even realized it.

Relieved from all of the heavy bags, Tifa followed Laurence into her apartment and shut the door behind her. As Laurence made his way into the kitchen and began unloading the items into the cabinets and refrigerator, Tifa was surprised at his silence throughout. Unless something was really troubling him, Laurence was almost never silent. She hung her coat in the closet and called out to him. "Hey, Laurence. Are you okay?"

When he didn't answer, Tifa began to get worried and walked over to the kitchen where Laurence had paused from unloading the groceries. "Laurence?"

He looked up at her and there was nothing but sorrow in his eyes as he stared back at her. Tifa walked over to him and peered up at him. He was so tall that the top of her head just reached his shoulders. "Hey, Laurence, what's the matter?"

Finally, Laurence spoke so softly that Tifa almost didn't catch what he said. "How can you still tolerate me after what I did to you yesterday?"

Bewilderment crossed Tifa's features. What? He was still obsessing over that? Over what had happened yesterday? "What are you talking about?" She reached up and cradled his face with her right hand. "Why are you still hung up over that?" When he continued to look at her that way, Tifa continued. "I was just overly embarrassed at the time, but that's all."

When Laurence still didn't look convinced, Tifa tried smiling and tried making light of the situation. She didn't like seeing Laurence so sad. "If I can move on after what happened yesterday, I'm pretty sure you can too." She paused. "Did you hear me? I forgive you for what happened yesterday because I know you were just joking. I know you weren't being serious, so let's just move on with our lives, now, shall we?"

---

Laurence couldn't believe it. Tifa had actually forgiven him and moved on. That was one of the things that he admired about her. That was one of the many things that he loved about her: her willingness to forgive and forget. Laurence continued staring into Tifa's beautiful brown eyes and cherished the feeling of her soft hand on his cheek.

These emotions that Laurence was feeling were too much for him to handle. He had never experienced this kind of warmth welling up in his chest as he continued gazing at Tifa. Although Laurence had felt the similar feelings last week right after Tifa had told him about her relationship with Cloud Strife, since then his emotions were pretty much controlled. And now they were back again.

Laurence couldn't believe that an extremely caring and considerate woman like Tifa was touching him in a way that no one woman had ever succeeded in doing. He knew that Tifa probably didn't reciprocate his feelings, but at the moment all he could think about was her. About how beautiful and amazing Tifa Lockheart was.

These were the only thoughts that filled Laurence's mind. These were the only thoughts that continued to spin in his head as Laurence lowered his head and touched his lips to Tifa's.

Author's Note: Ahhh! After so much time has passed since I've written a chapter, I'm extremely proud to say that I absolutely love it! And I actually finished it through one sitting; usually it takes me longer. However, the thoughts just kept leaking out of my head and I was afraid I would lose my thoughts if I didn't write it down. Okay, so thank you so much to everyone who has shown nonstop patience for these chapters. Yes, I realize that it didn't have Cloud in it or any other character except Tifa and Laurence. (Sigh) This means trouble because this chapter made me fall even more in love with Laurence. How sad is it for a writer to fall in love with her imaginary character?

Anyways, I'm starting to wonder if my chapters are even funny or sad or heart-wrenching at all, and I'm wondering if I'm the only one laughing at some of these parts in the chapter. If you experienced any kind of emotion/s when you were reading this chapter or the previous ones, for that matter, (no matter what those emotions may be; even if you feel hatred, let me know) please leave a review stating how this story has affected your emotions. I know, major-ly lame, but I think that it will help me in the future because I certainly don't want to be laughing at something I wrote and have readers not even flinch! Also, if you find my story too cliché, please mention that in a review so that I can be more aware of it in the future and try not to do it again.

As for the future chapters, don't worry; I have much larger plans for the plot and outcome of the story. There's a bunch of twists and turns and a whole lot of heart-wrenching emotions in-between. Enjoy and please review!