a/n: This is by far, my longest chapter here. xD But it should be entertaining. :3
Simple: hehe, thanks for always reviewing my stories, I'm glad you like them and... I really thought that writing these chapters that were parallel to the story would be disliked because of lack of originality but I guess I was wrong. I'm glad you like this story so far!
Angel: And you! Thank you also for reviewing this story. xD Really, your reviews is what's making me continue to write this story, so thank you. Yes, CloudxAerith forever! And I'm not sure, I guess you'll have to find out in this installment !
Here you go everyone! (btw, there are some speeches without any hit as to who was saying it, you can just choose whoever you want to be saying it.)
Chapter 7
The Honey Bee Inn Pageant !
"T-Tifa?"
Aerith looked straight at Cloud when she heard the name, her brows knitted together in curiosity.
"Tifa? Do you know her Cloud?"
Cloud didn't hear Aerith when she had asked him something, he was too busy thinking up reasons as to why Tifa was here. His mind wondered on the many possibilities and then somehow he started to debate about whether he should approach her or not. The young boy stood there, tightening his hold on Aerith's hand until she couldn't handle the pressure anymore. She shook their joined hands together, trying to get free and finally yelped at the boy's strong grip.
"Ow! Cloud, you're hurting me!"
Cloud finally realized what he was doing and let go quickly, looking at Aerith with apologetic eyes. "Sorry about that Aerith…" Aerith grabbed her throbbing hand and shook her head politely, smiling at the small boy. She was about to speak when a soft voice came up from beside them.
"Cloud?"
They both looked at the little girl who had spoken, and Cloud immediately began blushing as he stared at the girl from his hometown. Aerith noticed this, she giggled to herself at how funny Cloud was acting around the girl, she thought deeply before flashing a smile to her and placing a hand on Cloud's shoulder
"So you do know her Cloud… Tifa… Was it?" Aerith looked at the young raven-haired girl and extended her hand out to her. "Hi, I'm Aerith. I'm Cloud's friend!"
Tifa looked at Aerith with confusion but took her hand anyway, shaking it firmly. Her eyes were set on the blonde boy beside the brunette girl but she smiled and introduced herself too.
"I'm Tifa. Nice to meet you." She let go of Aerith's hand and looked at her for a split-second before looking back at Cloud, who was still silent and looking down to the ground, hiding his face entirely. "Cloud, what are you doing here?" Cloud suddenly looked up, his blushing face had cooled down but he was still a bit nervous, he tried to avoid the young girl's black eyes.
"What are you doing here, Tifa?"
Aerith watched as the two continued to stare at each other, noticing that both of them were trying to avoid their gazes. She scratched her head, wondering how the two were acquainted and why they were acting this way. Tossing her thoughts aside, she smiled smally and was about to say something but then Tifa had interrupted her again.
"I'm here… because of a contest…" The small girl spoke quietly, clearly embarrassed by the reason of her attendance in Midgar. Both Cloud and Aerith looked at Tifa, "What contest?" Aerith had asked all of a sudden with curiosity and excitement clearly in her voice. Cloud looked at Aerith for the first time since Tifa came and then looked at Tifa, nodding at Aerith's question. "Yeah, what contest?" His voice was as quiet as ever but both girls managed to hear him.
Tifa stared at the ground, embarrassed and uncomfortable. She traced a small circle on the ground with her feet as she began to explain to the two eager children.
"We-ell… It's this contest children enter and they dress up really nice to get judged by this guy that lives here… The winner gets a 1000 Gil prize." She finally looked up, seeing some pretty shocked faces. Her cheeks began to color lightly, and she looked away again when Aerith had started to jump up and down, excitedly.
"Wow! 1000 gil? That's a lot, do you know what we could do if we won that money Cloud? ANYTHING! We should enter it too!"
Cloud watched as Aerith jumped up and down, shouting in a crazed manner. He slowly backed away from his friend and rubbed the back of his head.
"U-um…" Tifa began to speak again which caught both Aerith's and Cloud's attention. "Well, the thing is… The contest is only for girls… So I don't think Cloud can enter it… You can, Aerith… but not Cloud."
Aerith had stopped jumping and looked at Tifa, a quiet dejected look slipped onto her face. She clasped her hands to her chest and looked at both Cloud and Tifa alternately.
"But… If we both enter the pageant, Cloud will be alone… I don't want Cloud to be alone…" She bit her lower lip, and placed a finger on her chin.
"But I want to win the money too…" She stood there, trying to make a decision but the two choices were much too hard to let go so easily. Cloud and Tifa stood there, befuddled at Aerith's dilemma. Cloud began rubbing his head again and smiled, laughing weakly.
"Haha… It's okay Aerith, you two can enter the contest, I'll just watch…" He was being polite to cover the fact that he really didn't want to join the two girls. His fake laugh continued to sound until Aerith had formed an 'X' sign by crossing her arms together and shaking her head vigorously.
"No Cloud! I don't want to leave you alone, I promised that I was gonna stay by you, so we're gonna figure out a way to get you into that contest!" She smiled wide and began thinking of possible ways to get Cloud into the contest. Cloud, on the other hand, was thinking up ways to not be in the contest. He shook his head from side-to-side, imitating Aerith's hand formation and was saying 'no' to her. Tifa watched the two, "They sure are weird…" She scratched the side of her cheek while the other two were occupied with their own things. Suddenly, Aerith had broken from her deep concentration and clasped her hands together in delight.
"I know!" She looked at the two kids with her emerald eyes heavily, and widely grinned at her perfect plan.
"Tifa… You and I will… Dress Cloud up as a girl!"
Their mouths went agape, eyes widened in shock, and there was silence in the air. Aerith clapped happily, not noticing the other two's shocked state and laughed to herself, imagining what Cloud would look like as a girl. Tifa and Cloud just remained silent until Tifa accidentally slipped out a giggle and burst out laughing.
Her giggle rung in the air delightfully. Cloud, thinking that she was laughing at Aerith's ridiculous idea, joined Tifa, guffawing loudly in mock.
"Hahahah! That's a great idea, Aerith!" Tifa proclaimed.
Cloud stopped laughing, "What?"
Tifa continued to laugh however, imagining an image of Cloud dressed up as a girl as well. She agreed with Aerith and thought that turning Cloud into a girl would be fun. Finally stopping, she wiped her eyes of the tears that came out and looked at Aerith, smiling.
"I think we should do that Aerith! It would be way too fun…ny…" She burst out into another round of giggles while Cloud just continued to stare at her with disbelief.
Aerith smiled happily and walked up to Tifa, she looked down at the laughing girl and put out her hand for a high-five. Tifa slapped it weakly, trying to retain her loose giggles but failed to do so. (The image of Cloud as a girl still lingered in her mind)
"All right! Then it's settled… Cloud, from now on, you're going to be … Cloudette!" Aerith pointed at the shocked boy and then started to laugh with Tifa.
"No." He finally said something.
The laughing stopped and the two girls looked at the boy with confusion. Tifa regained herself and stood up straight, looking at Cloud sadly. "But Cloud!"
"No." His response was cool, yet stern.
This time Aerith protested, looking at Cloud with her best puppy dog eyes and bringing out her plump bottom lip. "But Cloud, it'll be fun, being a girl isn't so ba—"
"NO! No,nononono!" This time, he lost it.
Cloud looked at the two girls with flames in his eyes. "There is no way (in hell) I'm going to let these girls turn me into a girl!" He clenched his hands into fists and gritted his teeth, showing that he was serious about not wanting to go through their horrible plan. The two girls looked at him with their best persuading faces but that didn't work on him; he wasn't going to lose, he wasn't going to let go of his masculinity that easily!
Tifa and Aerith both looked at each other while Cloud was waving his arms around in disagreement and purposely shouting out, 'no', repeatedly. They nodded at each other and then looked at the tantrum throwing boy before taking in a breath and shouting out together,
"Clo-oudd!"
"I think we should choose the silk one, it's so much prettier and it shines too!"
"We should get it in red… No, maybe blue? Oh wait! How about purple!"
"Stupid girls and their stupid ways…"
Cloud sat in the changing room of a store in the Wall Market. His face was annoyed as he sat in front of the mirror in complete privacy. He heard the girl's over-eager voices and was disgusted at how they were enjoying this. He propped his elbow on his knee and placed his chin on his hand while waiting for the two to finish choosing out his… dress.
"I hate this. I hate them. I knew coming to the Wall Market was going to be a bad idea…"
Aerith and Tifa pulled the curtain open and came in all of a sudden, surprising Cloud. Once he regained himself, he purposely glared at them as they started to hang things on the hook. Aerith smiled at Cloud, ignoring his glares and stepped outside with Tifa. Placing her hand on the curtain, she said one thing before pulling it closed.
"Okay Cloud. We chose out the clothes, all you have to do is put it on!" They both smiled, hidden delight was masked underneath their gentle grins.
Cloud continued to glare at them until the red curtain blocked his view. He stood in the change room by himself and crossed his arms over his chest while looking at the clothes they had chosen out for him. His stubbornness wouldn't help him out here, so he did what he had to do.
He started to change.
As Cloud was changing, Aerith and Tifa waited for him. The two took the time to acquaint themselves and Aerith was the one to break the ice with a question she had always wondered since Tifa's appearance.
"So-o… How do you know Cloud, Tifa?"
Tifa looked at Aerith, her black eyes watched the girl carefully and she blinked, looking away. "We were neighbours back when Cloud still lived in his house at Nibelheim."
Aerith gasped silently in realization and smiled down at the younger girl. "Ohh You two must've been good friends then." Aerith stopped smiling when she saw Tifa shake her head slowly, grimacing.
"No… Not really, I hung out with my crowd and he hung out with his… I wasn't really sad when he moved away but now that I've actually given the time to talk to him, I wish that I talked to him more back when he stilled lived in Nibelheim… He seems like a really nice guy."
Aerith looked down at Tifa, she wasn't sure of how she was feeling but she didn't really like the fact that she was feeling 'angry' towards Tifa. Aerith smiled, despite her true feelings and nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah, he is…"
At that moment, the curtain to Cloud's room had pulled open, catching the attention of the two girls. The young, blonde boy(?) had finally come out and the girl's looked at him with sparkles in their eyes. They both ran up to Cloud and began to admire him, spitting out positive comments his way. The boy(?) scratched the back of his blonde… wig and looked at them, sighing at the sadness of the two girls.
"Wow, Cloud… I mean, Cloudette! You look great!"
"Yeah, just like a rea—Like the pretty girl you are!"
Cloud sighed again, and rolled his eyes at their comments. "Girls…"
The three girls (two girls and one boy, actually) ran to the Honey Bee Mansion, where the pageant was held. Cloud was having trouble running in his geta, (wooden sandals) that matched with his purple kimono. The other two girls ran quickly, realizing that they were late and prompted Cloud to be faster.
"Come on Cloudette, hurry up!" Aerith slowed down to wait for Cloud(ette) and when he finally caught up to her, she grabbed his hand and dragged him along with her, the red tail of her dress was violently whipping at Cloud's head as they ran.
Finally, they had reached the mansion and was in time for the judging. (a/n: lol yeah, that's all it takes! Dress up and get judged by… /secret/)
There were tons of girls at the mansion; small ones, big ones, pretty ones … ugly ones, the only similarity between all of them was that they were young and dressed up. Cloud scanned his surroundings carefully, taking a peek or two at the more prettier ones at the large mansion. He continued to look at Aerith until they found Tifa, who was frantically waving for their attention, and ran up to her so they would all stand together.
Aerith grinned, while Cloud stayed pessimistic and wedged himself between Aerith and Tifa, he clasped his hands together in front of him and looking down to the ground. Aerith peered over Cloud and whispered for Tifa's attention, she stuck out her hand again and congratulated Tifa on a job well done. Tifa high-fived her before bringing her attention to the doors that opened, revealing a man in nice black suit with three other men behind him.
The man held a microphone in his hands and began to speak in it, his voice was grand and suave; the perfect voice for a host.
"Hello, all you young ladies. My, I have to say that all of you look lovely this evening, I'm so glad that you've all decided to join this year's, Miss Honey Bee! Proudly sponsored by the man of the Wall Market, the 'don' of all that is "pure" and "good", Don Corneo!"
All the honey bee maids and girls clapped at the entrance of the rather large sponsor. He looked very pompous and over the top but that doesn't really matter… The Don thanked the host for his entrance and finally began to judge the girls. He walked in front of them, looking at them carefully and clasped his hands together excitedly while musing on which girl to choose to be Miss Honey Bee.
"Now, let's see…Which girl should I choose! They're all so cute and pretty... Hmm--- Hmm---!!"
He eyed the all the girls and stopped before Cloud, who was shyly looking away. The Don looked down at Cloud and smiled.
"Oh... A shy one? How cute! Don't worry, I won't hurt you. Now look at me." Cloud looked up, seeing eye-to-eye with the don and quickly turned his head away to the side. "Oh man… I don't want him to choose me…." Don Corneo became frustrated and tried to face Cloud again but Cloud avoided his stare and turned his head to the other side once more. This went on for a couple of minutes until the don became too frustrated and moved on to the other girls.
Cloud sighed as the don walked away, he heard both Aerith and Tifa giggle at him.
"Oh Cloud You're so cute."
"Cloud, why'd you look away from him?"
He looked at Aerith, then Tifa and then shrugged. "I don't want to be chosen by that guy…"
Before they could say anything, the host had begun to speak again and they all noticed that the Don had come back to the podium. The host let Don Corneo speak at the podium, every girl was eager to find out who he had chosen and who was going to be the winner of the one thousand gil prize. The fat man stood there, clearing his throat and began to speak.
"All you girls are all so pretty and cute, I must thank all of you for taking the time in coming here to participate in this year's, Miss Honey Bee. I know that all of you have taken the time to dress yourselves up and if I could choose you all, I would! But unfortunately I can't... SO. This year's Miss Honey Bee is going to be… The beautiful blonde…"
Cloud choked.
"The shy but oh-so-cute…"
His hands began to clench while sweat poured from all over his body.
"SOPHIA!"
Cloud sighed, so relieved that he wasn't chosen. On the other hand, Tifa and Aerith were heavily disappointed that they weren't chosen. They started to whine sadly, talking about money and how they were prettier than the other girl… Cloud laughed at their loss and was about to calm them down when the Don had unexpectedly grabbed his shoulder. He tensed up, clenched his fists and slowly turned around.
The Don smiled at the pig-tailed …boy and whispered something to him that only he, Aerith and Tifa could hear.
"I'm sorry I didn't choose you girls, especially you Cloudette… But you know what? Uncle Donnie's got a secret to tell you. Come back in a few years, when you're older, and come to Uncle Donnie's mansion. I'll choose you right away. "
He gave Cloud(ette) a wink and disappeared behind the doors, leaving a shocked Cloud surrounded by laughing hyenas. (Aerith and Tifa.)
Scarred by the Don's message, Cloud clenched his hands together and looked upward to the ceiling, yelling in anger, fear, and annoyance… but mostly fear.
His scream echoed in the mansion, and possibly throughout the Wall Market but you had to be at the mansion to hear Aerith's and Tifa's laughter trilling in the background...
Author's Notes: Oh dear, poor Cloud. xD I'm so sorry!
Cloud: Yeah, you better be...
Haha, anyways... Sorry if this seemed like it went by fast (like the actions and dialogue), it's really late and I probably have a ton of mistakes in there, huh? Yes, I'm sorry for blinding your eyes with my grammar mistakes and poorly written story. :P But I hoped you liked it, all in all... I made it a funny chapter, hope you guys laughed at some point.
Stay tuned for the next chappie! Oh, and if you liked this chapter... Review:3 Thank you.