A/N: Originally written for the "Christmas in Seventh Heaven" contest, on deviantArt. And since I still owed SilverEclipse101 a Cloti one-shot, I thought, 'Hey, why not write another one-shot focusing on this pairing while I'm at it?' So I hope you guys enjoy. Happy Holidays and thanks so much for the support this past year! (And you can expect another Cloti from me soon.) :D
Thanks: Mystics Apprentice, for beta reading this piece.
~ The only positive thing about those accidents was that such mistakes always led to hilarious stories. Little did she know that today would lead to so much more... ~
Tifa suppressed a quiet groan. She had the urge to mentally facepalm...again. Honestly, this was a living nightmare she had landed in and frankly, she couldn't imagine anything worse at the moment. The frustrated bartender had started decorating Seventh Heaven more than two hours ago, with some much-needed help from Cloud and the kids. It had become a tradition for them, so it was an unwritten rule that it had to happen every year. By now the place should be looking colorful, what with the mistletoe, holly, artificial icicles, garlands and other cool decorations hanging everywhere. However, the raven-haired bartender couldn't exactly say that they had made that much progress; the paper bells and silver stars on the walls still had the nasty tendency to fall off when they weren't looking (not to mention how some of the Christmas lights still didn't work!). Then again, at least the Christmas tree hadn't caught on fire...yet. (Though she was still waiting for that to happen.)
Yes, what was supposed to be a fun holiday was a downright nightmare for Tifa. She wished that things were different. But alas, there was always something that went horribly wrong, whether it was Marlene or Denzel getting a piece of glass in their feet, or the Christmas dinner burning to the point of black ash that crumbled into nothingness before it was even touched. Last year, for example, she had accidentally dropped the vanilla cake she'd done so much her best on. (She'd made it because it was Cloud's favorite and she would do anything to make those electric-blue eyes glow faintly from happiness.) It had happened right before she was going to cut it and give it to the others, too. Talk about being doomed. She hardly ever dropped anything; being a bartender had its perks. So Tifa couldn't even explain how that had happened.
The only positive thing about those accidents was that such mistakes always led to hilarious stories. Little did she know that today would lead to so much more than one unfortunate event...
Oh well, the past is the past and this year will be different, the raven-haired beauty had thought, but boy, had she been wrong about that!
"We need a little more red in the tree, right?"
"Huh?" Marlene's question made the dark-haired woman return to reality and blink. Tifa's gaze traveled from the inquiring gaze to the pine, which was full with mostly golden balls and garlands. "Oh, uhm...yes. More red would look nice."
Swiftly, so as not to bring any attention to herself, she grabbed another red bauble and busied herself with hanging it in a random spot of the tree. She hardly noticed the quiet whispers of Denzel and Marlene, who seemed to be plotting something.
The blond ex-SOLDIER stepped closer to his childhood friend and, with a solemn look on her face, he asked her softly, "Is everything okay?"
Tifa's breath hitched at their sudden closeness, but Cloud didn't seem to be bothered by their proximity at all. Not trusting her voice, she merely nodded, before quickly averting her gaze.
Suddenly, the woman's thoughts were rudely interrupted when she saw a quick flash of brilliant red. Denzel and Marlene ran around them in different directions, laughing all the while. At the same time, Tifa had to keep herself on her feet as she was yanked forward by some unknown force. (But she had the feeling that the children had something to do with it.) She bumped into a just as surprised Cloud. Everything after that happened so fast that Tifa wasn't prepared at all to only be inches away from Cloud himself. She let out a soft, startled gasp, absolutely mortified, but at the same time unable to tear her eyes away from the blond's face. Tifa could hear her heart beating thrice as hard as usual and she fervently hoped that she was the only one who could hear it.
The ex-SOLDIER carefully removed the red glittering garland from her midnight-colored hair (how it had ended up there in the first place, he didn't know), without breaking eye contact. The sudden silence in the room made every movement sound at least ten times louder than usual, but the perplexed bartender didn't seem to hear it, anyway. She seemed to be completely entranced and that only stopped when Cloud ran his fingers through her hair to smoothen the place where the red garland had messed it up slightly.
"Thanks," the woman muttered, not looking directly at him.
She prepared to leave. However, just when Tifa had thought that she had seen everything, she was suddenly yanked back to Cloud, who captured her lips with his own. Before she could react, though, they parted again.
"Wha—?" Tifa stuttered, looking beet-red by now.
"Just living by the rules." The man didn't explain himself any further, but pointed at the ceiling, where a branch of mistletoe had appeared just as mysteriously as the upwards quirk of his lips— just wait a minute, was he smirking?
And with that, Cloud silently continued his chore of decorating the Christmas tree.
The dazed bartender just stared at his back and let out the breath she'd been unintentionally holding. I think I...need to sit down...somewhere... Preferably far away from a certain spiky-haired, absolutely smashing—and smirking—Cloud.
When she entered the kitchen, however, Tifa encountered yet another nightmare and she groaned. "No... I completely forgot about the kitchen..."
It was as though one nightmare had barely ended when she had to deal with yet another one (a worse one, too). Although if she was being honest, that moment earlier couldn't really be called a nightmare. It was far from that.
Despite the dirty room she was standing in, the dark-haired bartender had to smile.
At that moment, the track "Making Christmas" from the Nightmare Before Christmas ended. Instead, another familiar song on the radio came up, with the kind of romantic music that reminded her of snowy days and lazy afternoons that were spent in front of the hearth, with a hot cup of cacao.
"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." a deep, male voice started to sing in a tempo that matched the slow yet cheerful music.
Yes, you can certainly say that, Tifa thought happily, as the butterflies in her stomach came to life once again.
However, the smile on her face disappeared as soon as her hand touched something warm and sticky. The beautiful bartender turned her head and shivered. It seemed like it was time to face the horrors (and nightmares) that this dirty kitchen would unleash upon her...