Author's Note – We're off to the dance! Some of you might be alittle disappointed because Cloud isn't going to dance…I just couldn't picture the right moves for him. Definitely not like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever (although that would be hysterical), but maybe alittle like a toned down Justin Timberlake. But anyway, Cloud's too cool to dance, so he's not going to :oP

Chapter 9 – Careless Whispers

After putting on the suit and looking at myself in the mirror, I immediately yanked off the tie and then the jacket because I thought I looked like a teenager trying to look like his father. So it was just the blue slacks and the white shirt. If anyone thought I was underdressed, tough shit.

As I made my way downstairs, it felt weird not carrying any weapons. But the harness straps would look strange with what I was wearing. Just to ease my mind, before I left the room, I stuck a Lightning materia in my pocket in case there was any trouble.

The area outside the dining hall was wall to wall students…both girls and boys…a mass of pastel dresses and multi-colored suits. It looked like a circus threw up in the foyer. My eyes actually hurt staring at all the colors.

I tried to look over all the heads, searching for Tifa in the crowd. Was she already inside? A minute later I spotted Sara and squeezed through everyone to reach her. "Sara, where's Tifa?"

"I'm not sure. She stormed out a few minutes ago."

"What happened?" I hoped she wasn't upset because of me.

"She saw Robbie and before she had a chance to go up to him, Priscilla rushed over and hugged him. He ignored Tifa like she wasn't even there. I'm really worried about her, Cloud. She's been waiting to see him for months."

I wasn't sure if I was happy the guy wouldn't be with Tifa for my own selfish reasons or sad because Tifa was undoubtedly miserable now. Leaving Sara to fend for herself in the crowd trying to get into the dining hall, I went in search of Tifa.

"Mr Strife!"

The voice shot up my spine like a blood-curdling screech. I slowly turned around and Principle Redgrave walked over. She was wearing her usual gray suit. Is that all the woman had in her closet, a bunch of gray suits? Or…was it always the same one? I tried to maintain my distance because if she permeated any body odor, I didn't want it to ruin my evening. "Yes, ma'am."

She gave me a cursory glance, up and down. "Where is your suit jacket?"

"I left it upstairs." Before her eyes reached my neck, I casually adjusted the collar of the shirt to hide the hickeys, in case any were showing.

"A suit jacket is required this evening."

I sighed. "It's not even my suit."

"Yes, Hutchins informed me."

"I can't wear the jacket or the tie. It looks like shit."

She visibly cringed when I cursed, but quickly regained her composure. "Very well, I will overlook it this one time. If there are any other social events, I will expect to see you in proper attire."

I backed away. "Fine, just give me the gil to buy a suit that fits and I'll prance around in it all you want." I didn't wait for her response as I turned and jogged off, heading down one of the empty hallways. Hopefully Tifa hadn't been stupid enough to go outside in the cold in nothing but that…revealing dress. When I rounded a corner I spotted her. She was sitting on the stairs and I could tell she was crying.

Tifa gave me a brief glance as I walked up and sat down next to her on the stairs.

I didn't say anything right away, waiting a minute. "Sara told me what happened."

She wiped at her eyes. "So you came to gloat at my despair?"

I rested my elbows on my knees and folded my hands. "No, I came to see if you were all right."

"That stupid Priscilla. She's taken every guy I've liked away from me."

I wanted to lighten the mood. "Well, she can't seem to find her own guys, so she obviously thinks you have better taste."

"So I'm supposed to take it as a compliment when she steals my boyfriends?"

Man, why couldn't I be word smart like Vincent? I was always saying the wrong thing. "I didn't mean it like that."

Tifa got up and started walking away. "I know what you meant, Cloud."

I got up and followed her. Unfortunately it was right into the Ladies Room, but luckily it was empty in there.

"What you're saying," Tifa continued, "is that girls like Priscilla get all the good-looking guys which leaves me with all the geeks." She went into a stall and unrolled some toilet paper.

I gave her a crooked smile. "Are you calling me a geek?"

She laughed for a second before she pressed herself against me and buried her face in my shoulder. "Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Cloud."

I slid my arms around her, comforting her in whatever way she needed me to. "Tifa, I'm sorry about before." She smelled so good, I was afraid I'd lose control of myself again and kiss her. "I didn't mean what I said."

"I'm sorry, too."

I nudged her until she raised her head up and looked at me. "I don't like seeing you cry. You want me to kick that guy's ass for you?"

She laughed again as she pulled away and wiped at her eyes with the toilet paper. "No, just forget it." She checked herself in the mirror. "Let's just go back and I'll pretend nothing happened." Her eyes wandered over me in the mirror with a frown. "Are those your clothes?"

I automatically looked down at myself. "No. Hutchins got them from Skutel. He said we were the same size."

"Well, Hutchins really needs his eyes checked."

I turned to the mirror. The slacks were too big around the waist and I had put on my belt to tighten them so they didn't fall off. The shirt fit fine at the shoulders, but was too big around the middle, so it was bunching out where I had it tucked into the slacks. When I glanced at Tifa through the mirror, I noticed she had a hand covering her mouth. "Do I look funny?"

She quickly shook her head, but her hand remained over her mouth, which led me to believe she did think I looked funny.

When I got Tifa back to the dining hall, she sat with her friends at one of the formally decorated tables. She insisted I hang with them and I didn't mind it for once. I really didn't feel like sitting with the teachers and my little midget posse was too young to come to the dance.

Sara and Jaden looked very nice in their formal dresses, despite the blinding colors. I wondered why Tifa had gone with an off-white color instead of the wild ones that seemed to be popular among the other girls. But I thought she looked classy and sophisticated in her dress.

I noticed Tifa glancing at one of the other tables and when I turned to follow her gaze, I saw Priscilla sitting with a dark-haired guy. This had to be Robbie. He looked tall even sitting down, over six feet maybe. I wasn't a very good judge of looks when it came to guys, but he seemed to be the type that attracted the girls, which was probably why Tifa liked him. I felt a wave of jealousy that she would like someone else and I hated feeling this way.

When I turned back to Tifa, she was playing with her silverware, angrily stabbing the knife into the table. "If she wants him so bad, then she can have him."

"He's an idiot, Tifa," Sara consoled. "All he wants is one thing or he wouldn't be sitting with Priscilla."

Tifa dropped the knife and sighed heavily. "Maybe I should start being more like her and sleep around with every guy I come across."

I was about to put in my two gils, but Jaden beat me to it. Which was probably better for me because I would have ended up saying the wrong thing anyway.

"Don't even think about it," said Jaden. "She's a tramp and there's no going back once you've been down that road. No guy's going to marry her when they find out she's had sex with more than half the population of Icicle Village and the surrounding towns."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Tifa smiled. "You're right." She leaned toward me and wrapped her arm around mine. "Besides, I have all of my bestfriends to hang out with. Who needs a loser like Robbie?"

My heart did a backflip. I literally wanted to jump up on the table and do a little happy dance because that asshole was out of the picture. I just hoped no one else decided to step up anytime soon…before I had a chance to win Tifa back.

Her words burned in my head. It took a long time for me to get over you. I can't go through that again. I needed to make up for that lost time. I needed to convince Tifa that I wouldn't disappear on her again and prove to her that she could trust me. The one thing I had to do though was tell her the truth about what happened between the time I killed Seph in Nibelheim's reactor, to the time I showed up with Zack's buster sword in Midgar and joined AVALANCHE. I wanted her to know I didn't forget her on purpose.

"I'm starving," said Tifa. "Let's go get some food."

While Tifa, Sara and Jaden walked to the buffet tables piled with mountains of food, I decided to wait until there were less people up there. I hated crowds and I hated waiting in line. Plus it gave me a chance to look around for any potential kidnappers.

Even though I didn't trust anyone in the girls' academy, I had even less trust for those in the boys' academy. Anyone of the teachers could have been planted by the person threatening Shinra. Rufus was under the impression that only a limited few knew that Tifa Lockhart was his half sister. But there was no guarantee the assassin didn't already know. If Rufus didn't have his own suspicions then he wouldn't have hired me to protect Tifa in the first place.

The girls came back about five minutes later. There was enough food on Tifa's plate to feed a full grown chocobo.

"Is there anything to drink?" I asked.

"Yes, there's fruit punch over on that side," Tifa replied and pointed.

Fruit punch? Who the hell served fruit punch at a party? No alcohol, not even beer. Then I remembered not all the students here were eighteen, the legal drinking age. Oh well, I could always go upstairs and drink some of my secret stash.

I got up and decided to be a nice guy for a change. "Anyone for some punch?"

"I'd love some."

"That would be great."

"Thanks, Cloud."

I walked over to a grouping of three tables, set up in a triangle, with ten large glass punch bowls. In the center were three servers.

One of them greeted me with a smile. "Care for some punch?"

"Yeah, give me four."

He poured punch into four tall plastic cups. "Here you go."

I gathered the four cups in my hands.

"Are you him?"

I turned back toward the server. "Excuse me?"

"Are you the one in the papers, the one who fights monsters for a living?"

I sighed heavily, not at all interested in what this guy had to say about me. "No, I'm his evil twin brother. I rape and pillage small villages when I've got nothing better to do with my time."

His eyes widened a little and while he didn't seem to have anything more to say to me, I walked back to the table, laughing to myself along the way.

After I set the cups down and Tifa, Sara and Jaden took theirs, I noticed Jaden pull something familiar out of her purse. It was a small bottle of rum, just like the one I had stashed under my bed.

"Hey, where'd you get that?" I angrily asked.

She didn't bother to respond, so I knew she had taken it. With a quick glance around to make sure no one was watching, Jaden poured some rum in each of their cups of punch. "Want some, Cloud?"

I was really pissed because it was my rum. But I held my cup out to her anyway. She poured a small amount. When I gave her a stern look, she poured more and then stashed the bottle back in her purse. I couldn't believe they were using my good rum and mixing it with punch. It tasted like shit, but I drank it anyway and even went back for second and third rounds for us. With all the booze we drank the previous night, I was surprised we were drinking at all. Well, at least I planned to not get so wasted this time. I wasn't sure what Tifa and her friends planned to do.

The minute Tifa put her fork down, I leaned closer and picked it up. The only thing that looked good on her plate was some kind of beef. I stabbed a couple pieces with the fork and shoved them in my mouth.

Tifa gave me a dirty look. "Can't you go get your own food, Cloud?"

"I'm not hungry." Even after I said it, I ate some of her potatoes before turning the fork back over to her.

"Hey, how's your back, Cloud?" asked Sara.

"It's fine. It's all healed."

Jaden smirked. "Can't say the same about those red spots on the side of your neck."

I frowned at her. "Which reminds me, you better erase those pictures."

"Come on, Cloud. You two looked so cute sleeping together in the bathtub."

"You wanna live to see another birthday?"

"Oh, I am so scared."

Tifa tilted her head to see my neck. "It's not that bad."

Jaden laughed. "Yeah sure, Tifa, were you trying to suck the blood out of him?"

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

"I wonder what else got sucked during the night," added Sara.

I rolled my eyes and dropped my forehead on the table, banging it several times in frustration. Tifa's friends were merciless. I needed another drink.

The evening had gotten off to a dull start, but things started to pick up from that point on. And most of it wasn't even my doing.

First Redgrave went up on the stage to give some kind of speech about the success of the two schools and how important it was to be educated. Someone threw a grape and it stuck in her cottony hair. When everyone started laughing, she kept pausing to question what was so funny. I laughed so hard, punch nearly came out of my nose.

Then Redgrave called up someone named Tanya Kilroy, who supposedly had the best grades out of everyone in both schools. Tanya started going up the stage steps, tripped on the hem of her dress and it just came right off. Everyone stopped clapping and stared in shock because she had nothing on except a black thong. One of the teachers rushed over to grab her dress, but when he went to cover her, he tripped and landed face first right into her flopping boobs. That was another rib-aching good laugh.

Then several of the students were going to participate in a Karaoke contest before the band started playing and a fight broke out between two of the girls about who was going to go first. Shoes and articles of clothing…and a large clump of hair…went flying around.

While that fiasco was going on, Tifa and her friends were talking about some of the ugly dresses. It was actually getting annoying and boring.

I looked around and reached for a balloon tied to a nearby chair. After ripping off the end of it, I sucked up all the helium and leaned over Tifa's shoulder to talk. "Oh my Gods," I screeched in the high-pitched voice due to the helium. (A/N: Think chipmunk now.) "Did you see the green dress? Wasn't it atrocious? Ugh! It's making me so sick I wanna puke in the punch bowl."

That immediately set the girls laughing.

"Do it again! Do it again!" yelled Sara.

Unfortunately after sucking the helium from four more balloons, I got light-headed and nearly passed out. When I said I was starting to feel sick, the girls thought I was faking it. Stupid balloons.

The night wouldn't be complete without the help of some very untalented singers during Karaoke. It wasn't even singing, it was shrieking. It was so bad I wanted to cry.

"Uh oh, Taylor's going up there again," warned Jaden.

We all groaned. The girl had been worse than terrible.

"Quick, someone get me some forks," I said.

Tifa gave me a strange look. "What for?"

"I wanna stick them in my ears and pop my eardrums. I can't listen to this shit anymore."

During a particularly bad rendition of a popular song, there was some commotion near the fireplace. Some girl's hair caught on fire when she leaned too close to the flames. Stupid girl. With all that hairspray holding her hair together, she was lucky she didn't explode. Too bad though, she could have taken a couple of her idiot friends with her.

Right after that some genius thought it would be a great idea to pass out cans of Silly String. Well, that brilliant plan turned sour. Everyone was spraying each other and it was getting everywhere…on the floor, in the chandeliers, in the punch…

Tifa thought it was hilarious when she sprayed it down the back of my shirt and had an even better time digging it out. If I was a real ass I would have sprayed it inside the front of her dress and told her it was my turn to dig it out. That could have been the highlight of my night.

The Silly String put an end to the Karaoke, thank all the Gods!

Right after that, Shades of Black went up on stage and started performing. At last, some real music. I recognized them right away, having seen them once in Junon.

Everyone was soon dancing to the music. I watched from the side, thinking these kids couldn't dance to save their lives. Not that I was an expert at it or anything. It just made me laugh when some people thought they were really good, when in fact they sucked.

Especially some of these guys…from under what rock did they crawl out of?

There was the 'Finger Snapper', who didn't move anything except his hand to snap his fingers. Now if he could just snap to the beat, that'd be great.

The 'Clapper' clapped every other beat, thinking it made his moves look better, especially when his arms went up so he could clap over his head. Looked totally hot. NOT!

Let's not forget the 'Body Rubber' who ran his hands all over his chest and legs, like that would make him look more attractive.

'Mr Jumping Jacks' had no other moves, so he went into a whole exercise routine, nearly poking out someone's eye with his flailing fingers.

What about the 'Leg Wiggler'? Apparently his legs were made of rubber and he couldn't control their movement.

The 'Crotch Grabber' was afraid someone would steal his family jewels so he'd check every thirty seconds to make sure they were still there.

And finally my personal favorite…'Mr Roboto'. That dance came out when I was like five and it was just as ridiculous now as it was back then.

Despite the distracting bad dancing of the guys, some of the girls were actually pretty good. Girls tended to have better rhythm then guys and even if they didn't but were hot looking, then no one cared how they danced anyway.

Tifa had some good moves. In fact, just watching her sway her hips and jiggle her…stuff, in that dress, made my mouth water. If I didn't think we were being watched by Redgrave and her clan, I would have been dancing with Tifa, grinding myself against that rotating butt.

Cringe…bad idea thinking about that. I needed to think about safer things or I'd be walking around with a boner all night long.

I kept my distance from Tifa, without really keeping my distance, even when she and her friends were dancing with other guys. I just wanted to give Tifa her space so she wouldn't think I was trying to keep her from meeting someone new. It was hard for me to act indifferent. Every guy that looked at her…I knew what they were thinking because I wanted to do the same thing.

In fact, as I was coming back from the bathroom, I happened to overhear something.

"Man, Lockhart has got some nice-looking cans on her. I'd love to get my face in there."

I moved closer and narrowed my brows at the guy staring at Tifa on the dance floor.

"Damn, look at that ass move. I just wanna stick my…"

I grabbed him by the back of his suit jacket before he could finish the thought and dragged him kicking and screaming out of the dining hall. A few minutes later I walked away from the closet where I kicked him inside. There was some banging on the door, but no one seemed to be paying him any attention as I walked passed their dazed faces, brushing dust off my sleeves. Anyone else want my foot up their ass?

Back in the dining hall, I made my rounds, checking that Tifa was still dancing with Sara and Jaden and some of their other friends. They were all doing a line dance. It was mostly girls. None of the guys could move like that.

I glanced over to where Redgrave was debating with Hutchins, pointing to the dance floor. I imagined she wanted Hutchins to stop everyone from dancing so provocatively. Like he could really do anything about it.

"Hi, Cloud," said someone behind me.

I turned around, recognizing the girl as someone in Tifa's Advanced Biology class. But I didn't know her name. "Hi."

She was blushing and nervously twittling her thumbs. "Uhm…do you…do you wanna dance?"

Uh oh…I never thought anyone here would ask me. I didn't want to hurt her feelings. "You know, I would but…my girlfriend probably wouldn't like it."

Her eyes widened. "Tifa's your girlfriend?"

Before I could correct her, she rushed off and got lost in a large group of girls. Five seconds later they were all looking at me. I turned around, thinking maybe they were looking at someone behind me. Nope, they were looking at me. Ah, shit. They all thought Tifa was my girlfriend. I was in trouble now.

Well, at least no one else asked me to dance after that.

It was soon going on 11:30. The band was quitting in fifteen minutes and the buses heading to the boys' school were leaving at midnight.

Tifa walked up to me. "You promised me a dance, Cloud."

"I did?" I teased. "I don't remember that."

She laughed and took my hand.

I tugged along behind her as she pulled me into the middle of the hundred others dancing to the slow music. She felt so warm as I held her close against me. I breathed the scent surrounding her and closed my eyes, losing myself in the moment as we moved together.

"Do you have any idea why people think you're my boyfriend?" she suddenly asked.

I pulled back to look at her. "Uh…well, I kinda said to some girl that I had a girlfriend so I wouldn't have to dance with her. She figured it was you."

Instead of being angry, like I thought she'd be, she giggled. "Everyone's going to think it's true now that we're dancing together."

"We can stop if you want."

"No, let them think what they want." She wrapped her arms tighter around my neck.

When she started singing in my ear, I got a weird fluttering in my stomach. Was she really singing to me or was it just something she did when she liked a song.

But if you can look in my eyes
And tell me we'll be all right
If you promise never to leave
You just might make me believe

I felt as if we were together, like a real couple. For the first time I didn't fear forever. This was exactly what I had been searching for and wanted. Forever with her.

She played with the hair at the back of my head. "Your hair doesn't look like it would be so soft," she whispered in my ear. "But it is."

Damn, she was giving me goosebumps. But I wasn't going to let her get away with it. Just like I had imagined it in my mind earlier, I moved my hand to her bare back and began lightly brushing my thumb over her skin. When I felt her shiver, I turned my lips to her ear. "Cold?"

"Not at all."

For the next few minutes I forgot where I was. It was just me and Tifa, dancing slowly in a tight hug, holding each other closer than we had ever done before.

One slow song went into another. Since Tifa didn't show signs of stopping, I wasn't going to. I didn't ever want to let her go. But it was such a sappy song, I wanted to laugh.

I need you tonight
I need you right now
I know deep within my heart
It doesn't matter if it's wrong or right
I really need you tonight

I nearly whispered the last line in her ear. She probably would have slapped me.

The next song had a faster beat and Tifa's warmth faded as she slowly pulled away.

Her eyes locked with mine. "Do you know your eyes glow a little in the dark?"

"It's from the Mako."

Even though people were dancing around us, Tifa and I were just standing in the middle of the dance floor. Not moving, just looking at each other as we held hands.

She was going to say something to me. I could see it in her eyes. Tell me you love me, Tifa and I'll tell you, too.

"Cloud, I…I…"

"Tifa?" said someone behind me.

I angrily turned toward the source calling her name and wanted to push them for breaking the spell between Tifa and I. Damn, it was him.

"Robbie," said Tifa.

I caught the touch of excitement in her voice when she said his name. This guy reminded me of Reno. Not in looks, but in the way he was stealing my girl. I could save me and Tifa a lot of heartache if I just zapped him with my Lightning materia. Just a little one would do the trick. Make his hair stand on end more than mine.

When I turned back to Tifa, she gave me a pleading look. "Cloud?"

I knew what she wanted. For me to split. "Yeah, sure. I'll see you later." I released Tifa's hands and walked away. I didn't wait to hear what else she had to say and I definitely didn't want to wait to see them together in any way.

Sorry there wasn't more happening at the dance. But the night's not quite over. Stay tuned!