Author Notes – In the game and in the movie, Cloud does a lot of special acrobatics that don't seem gravitationally possible. In order to lend a bit more reality to my story, I'm going to limit his "flying" ability. Hope that's all right with everyone.

Chapter 7 – Uninvited Guests

"Oh, this is just too good to pass up," said a voice in my mind. "Get my phone, quick."

Several giggles invaded my head and then there was a bright flash, which made me jump and groan in pain. My head was exploding.

"Quick, take another one before they wake up."

Another flash. This time I cracked open my eyes and found myself in a pretty compromising situation. Tifa was sprawled on top of me and we were in the bathtub. Standing in the doorway was Jaden, with her phone aimed in our direction. Flash! She was taking pictures!

I struggled to get out of the tub, pushing Tifa off with not a whole lot of grace. When I finally managed to get up on my feet, I looked up at Jaden. "Give me that fucking phone."

She screeched and ran, dragging Sara with her.

I got one foot out, but the other one was still asleep and caught the edge of the tub. I went flying into the bathroom cabinet and cracked my forehead on the door handle when I tried to get up. "Shit!" My already pounding head was really pounding now.

When I staggered out of the bathroom, holding my head with both hands, Tifa's friends scattered like rabbits. They all filed out the door, robbing me of my chance to kick some asses. The room was suddenly quiet…a mess of blankets and pillows thrown all around.

Just because I didn't trust anybody, I went around the small room, kicking things around in case someone was still hiding out.

A sound in the bathroom made me cringe. Tifa was throwing up. Chalk it up to all the stupid things I did in my life…buying grain alcohol for a bunch of girls who were obviously not used to the stuff…bad choice on my part.

When I walked into the bathroom, I found Tifa kneeling on the floor, her face hovering above the toilet. I moved closer to help her because I felt responsible for her condition.

She roughly shoved me away. "Don't touch me!" She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and glared up at me. Her expression suddenly turned from angry to full-blown rage. "What's that all over your neck?"

I automatically turned to face the mirror. My eyes widened when I saw the scattered red marks on my skin. Holy shit! I had six hickeys scattered around the right side of my neck and three down the middle of my chest.

"You made out with one of my friends?" she furiously accused.

"What?" I turned back to her. "No!"

Tifa struggled to get up and when she was finally on her feet, she shoved me so hard, I almost fell into the bathroom sink. "I can't believe you'd do such a thing, Cloud!"

I chased after her. "I slept in the bathtub the whole time. I didn't go anywhere near your friends."

"Well then it must have happened when you disappeared for four hours. Who was it? Priscilla?"

"Who?"

"Don't pretend you don't know her, Cloud."

"You were the only one I was with, Tifa."

"Excuse me? We were never together."

"Yes, we were. In the tub."

"Stop making things up, Cloud."

I snapped my fingers when I remembered Jaden had taken a couple pictures of me in the bathtub with Tifa. I grabbed my phone. "What's Jaden's number?"

"Are you insane? I'm not giving you her number."

I walked to the nightstand and picked up Tifa's phone. She rushed over and tried to wrestle it out of my hands. I gave her a little push, forcing her to sit on the edge of her bed. If she wasn't so hung over, she might have put up a better fight.

She gave me an angry scowl and folded her arms across her chest.

I scrolled through the contact list on Tifa's phone and found Jaden's name. After hitting Send, I waited with the phone on my ear.

"Hi, Tifa," said Jaden when she picked up.

"This is Cloud."

"Uh oh."

"Yeah, uh oh. Send one of those pictures to this phone."

"Why?"

"Just do it." I hung up and tossed the phone to Tifa.

"I'm not going to believe anything you say, Cloud."

"Suit yourself."

Tifa's phone chirped a few seconds later. She continued to glare at me as she flipped it open. Then she looked down at it.

I watched her expression go from angry to surprise. "Yeah, see that? Where's my apology, Tifa?"

She got up and punched my arm. "It's still your fault."

"My fault? You kissed me first. I didn't force you and I sure didn't give these to myself," I said as I pointed to my neck.

"I didn't know what I was doing. I was drunk."

"Well, whatta you think I was?"

"Ha! I don't even like you, Cloud Strife. I've never liked you!"

I gave her a crooked smile and snorted. "Yeah, right." I knew better and if I wasn't so afraid of her knowing I had gone through her personal stuff, I would have pulled that letter out from under her mattress. She said it right there, she liked me more than a lot.

She punched my arm again, harder this time. "Do you want to know the truth?"

"Yeah, that'd be swell." I wanted to hear her say she was nuts about me and then I'd tell her how I felt. "And stop punching me!" I rubbed my arm where she hit me.

"The truth is, you're a big fat jerk!"

"I'm not fat!"

"I can't believe you went through all that trouble just to make me think you were dead."

"What're you talking about?"

Tifa reached under her mattress and produced the envelope I already knew about. "This!"

I pretending I was seeing it for the first time. "Deceased?"

"You wrote it on the envelope and sent it back to me. Why couldn't you just be honest and tell me you didn't want to be friends with me anymore?"

"That's not even my handwriting." I reached for the envelope.

She pulled her hand away. "You didn't write that?"

"No. Let me see it."

Tifa shoved the envelope behind her back. "No."

"It's addressed to me so it's mine." If she wasn't so scantily dressed, I would have gotten physical with her, but I was afraid I'd get turned on. "Hand it over, Tifa."

"If you didn't write it, then who did? Why would they want me to think you were dead?"

Maybe now was a good time to tell her everything. "If I tell you, then promise me you won't get upset."

"For you to say that, then it means I probably will get upset."

"Then I'm not telling you."

Just then a loud siren began to sound.

I heard Tifa gasp and turned to her. "What's going on?" I asked.

"Something's gotten through the security fence." She ran for the window.

I came up next to her and looked out. A group of Bandersnatches were advancing toward the building. I remembered them having a very nasty bite that could easily kill if you weren't paying attention to what you were doing.

"Oh no, not them." Tifa sounded worried and she lifted the window open, the biting cold coming inside. "The last time one of them got through, it killed one of the security men. Now there's six of them. It'll take too long for the Icicle Village patrol to get here."

The door swung open and Jaden and Sara rushed in. They shoved me out of the way so they could stand next to Tifa.

"There's no way Hutchins and the others can handle that many," yelled Sara over the blaring sirens.

While they were busy staring out the window, I grabbed my clothes and ran into the bathroom. When I came out a couple minutes later, I armed Apocalypse in my right hand and Organics in my left. "Get out of the way," I said as I walked toward the window.

As Tifa, Sara and Jaden parted, I slipped through the window and jumped from the third floor to the hard ground below. A quick glance to my left and I spotted Hutchins and his sidekicks running down the front steps. "Stay back!" I yelled at them. Before I turned to face forward again, I realized all the windows were filled with students watching the monsters approaching. Great…just what I needed, an audience.

When the first Bandersnatch launched itself toward me, I ducked and slashed upward, slicing its body in half. Hot gray blood sprayed my face and I quickly wiped it away as two more of the wolf-like creatures came at me from opposite directions.

As I held my swords up, the Bandersnatches slowed their pace and paused. I could barely hear their growls over the school's sirens. It was going to be hard to keep track of the other three if I couldn't hear them. My eyes darted back and forth between the two on either side of me. They were cunning creatures that learned fast. Seeing one of their own go down, they were already trying to figure me out.

The Bandersnatches attacked at the same time.

I turned for a second to impale Organics into the creature on my left and the other one raked deadly claws across my back. I barely had enough time to spin around and slice off its head with Apocalypse.

The three remaining Bandersnatches snarled, the green fur around their necks ruffled. They were really pissed now. I needed to be careful or this fight would be over in two seconds with me being the victim.

"Tifa, no!" someone yelled.

"Huh?" I took a couple steps back, my eyes still locked on the three creatures in front of me. Someone ran up and stopped to stand beside me. I chanced a quick glance.

It was Tifa and she was wearing that black leather vest I had seen hanging in her closet. Plus she was wearing the black leather gloves and the heavy boots. She looked amazing.

"What the hell're you doing out here, Tifa? Get back inside before you get hurt."

"And leave you out here to get killed before you tell me what you were going to say?"

"Now's not a really good time to talk." I gave her another quick glance and noticed her holding her fists up. Was she kidding? A Bandersnatch would chew off her arm before she could get a punch in.

I no sooner finished the thought when one of the three charged at her, running at a full gallop. When it jumped, Tifa took a step back and swung her fist. It connected with the Bandersnatch's snout. Then she raised her leg and swung her foot around, hitting the dazed creature in the ribs and sending it in my direction. I sliced off its limbs as it went flying passed me.

Before I had a chance to be impressed, the last two Bandersnatches attacked. I sheathed Organics and jumped up. When I came down with Apocalypse, I killed the Bandersnatch with my Braver blow, burying it's head into the ground.

Tifa didn't react fast enough and the last of the creatures bowled her over. It was going to bite her face. I dropped Apocalypse and raised my fists. It had been a while since I used any materia and all I had on me was Fire. Flames shot out of my knuckles and the impact knocked the Bandersnatch off of Tifa. Before it could get up again, I sent it another stream of fire. The Bandersnatch went up in flames and fell over dead.

The sirens abruptly stopped and it was eerily quiet all of a sudden, except for the crackling of the burning Bandersnatch.

I walked over to Tifa and pulled her up by the arm. "You okay?"

She nodded.

"You ever risk your life like that again, I'll kill you myself." I left her standing by herself as I walked back toward the building. Hutchins and company stared open-mouthed at me as I went up the stairs and passed them. In fact, everyone was looking at me with the same expression…like they couldn't believe what their eyes had witnessed.

The masses parted as I walked to the entrance. Either they were afraid of the weapons in my hands or it was the Bandersnatch blood all over me.

My eyes fell on Redgrave. She looked like she didn't know whether she wanted to yell at me for being stupid or kiss me for saving their asses. Either one would earn her a punch in the nose because I was in no mood for her shit.

As I made my way upstairs, it seemed like everyone had come out of their rooms in their pajamas to see what the commotion was all about. Among the kids lining the hallways, I spotted my little jello buddy, Jessica. I gave her a wink and she broke into a smile.

When I walked into Tifa's room, Sara and Jaden were still there. They both looked at me like they were afraid I might pounce on them. I motioned toward the door with my head. "Go check on Tifa."

The two girls rushed out and closed the door behind them.

I took a moment to rinse the Bandersnatch blood off my weapons in the shower and dried them carefully. After putting the swords with the others, I stripped out of my clothes and noticed the three diagonal slashes on the back of my sweater vest. Maybe someone here had sewing skills and be able to fix it. I tossed it in the growing pile of clothes next to the bed. When was Laundry Day around here?

I went in the shower to wash off the Bandersnatch blood. It was sticky in my hair and smelled horrible. I had to wash and rinse my hair three times to get it out. Everytime I turned my bare back to the spraying water, I wanted to punch the wall because it hurt so bad. Luckily the creatures weren't poisonous or I'd be in serious trouble right about now, not having any vials of Antidote on me.

After getting out of the shower, I wrapped a towel around my waist and turned to look at my back in the mirror. Three long, angry slashes ran diagonal across my back, just like my vest.

There was a light knock on the bathroom door. "Cloud?" It was Tifa. "Are you decent?"

I reached for the knob and pulled the door open.

She stood there looking at me with concern in her eyes. "I'm sorry, Cloud. I know it was stupid of me to run out there." Her eyes did a little dance around my bare torso.

"Damn right it was." I reached for my gel and winced when I raised my arms up to put it in my hair. My back was killing me. I gave Tifa a side glance. "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

"I've had official Turk training."

I frowned. "Since when?"

"Rufus sends someone here once a month. He's pretty good in a fight. You might know him. He's got long, dark hair in a ponytail."

"Tseng?"

"Yeah, that's him. He's a really nice guy."

I wanted to tell her that Tseng was responsible for ordering the Shinra army to go after me and Zack when we escaped the Shinra mansion in Nibelheim not too long ago. It was when Zack was shot to death by them. But I decided now wasn't a good time to bring that up. "There's a bottle of healing potion in my duffle bag. Can you get it for me?"

"Sure."

I turned back to the mirror and briefly smiled when I saw the hickeys again. Too bad I didn't remember how they got there. One thing was certain, Tifa gave them to me. She was the last thing I remembered before blacking out and the first thing I saw when I woke up this morning.

She returned after a minute and unscrewed the cap off the green bottle. "Can I help?"

"If you want." Actually I wouldn't have been able to apply the stuff myself.

"What do I do?"

"Just rub it right on the gashes." I watched her through the mirror as she concentrated on pouring some of the potion on her hand. When her fingers touched me, I clenched my teeth and closed my eyes.

"It's foaming up," she said, sounding startled.

"That means…it's working." The pain was taking my breath away.

She continued to rub the potion on my wounds. "Does it hurt?"

"Yeah, like hell." But it was worth the initial pain, knowing the potion would completely heal the gashes in a matter of hours. "Don't you have to get to Icicle Village to pick up your dress for the dance tonight?" I opened my eyes and saw her looking at me through the mirror.

She shrugged. "Hutchins is taking some of us in a school bus. I hate the way he drives."

"I can take you."

Tifa smiled and when she finished putting the potion on me, she backed away. "I'll go get dressed." She closed the door after walking out.

When her smile was directed at me, it did a number on my heart. I didn't know why I volunteered to take her to Icicle Village myself. Or maybe I did. Because nearly my whole life all I wanted to do was make Tifa happy.

Happy holidays! And please review. Thanks.