After a highly amused interrogation from her mother, who had asked her to be more careful with breakable things like doors and people, Tifa returned to her room to continue fuming about her stupid, spiky-haired best friend. Stupid hair didn't even shift when I threw him out. His head still looked like the ass-end of a chocobo.
She continued grumbling silently to herself, tightly hugging the pillow she had attacked him with as she sat, curled up in the middle of her bed. As time passed, her thoughts shifted from irritation at Cloud to worry about what he had said. The whole town knows? That has to be an exaggeration. Her fists clenched, squeezing the pillow, nearly tearing it open. But what if people do know? Oh god, what if she knows? She shook her head. No, she would have said something about it. She's honest about everything. A soft, derisive laugh escaped her throat. At least one of us is.
The frustrated teen growled at herself. Self-loathing was hardly constructive, but she couldn't help feeling it at the moment. It was her own fault she was in this mess, after all. She was the one who couldn't rein in her stupid emotions, and allowed them to get worse over time.
Back when she had given Aeris that flower, she didn't understand what she had been feeling. Afterwards, the girls had spent much more time together, with Aeris returning to Nibelheim much more frequently. It had taken Tifa about two weeks to figure out that she was having romantic feelings for the flower girl, and the realization confused and scared the hell out of her. As such, she determined that she needed to keep those feelings in check, and tried to reshape them into something more like a normal friendship. Unfortunately, she completely failed at that, her romantic feelings constantly growing stronger.
It didn't help that the emerald-eyed beauty was forever touching her. Whether it be holding hands, or giving hugs, or even simpler things like their arms brushing as they walked, or knees bumping when they sat too close together, there was always some form of physical contact. As much as the fighter enjoyed it, it also drove her mad. She just wanted things to go back to normal.
But is that really what I want? And were things ever really normal to begin with? She considered this grimly. Chocobo-head is right, I do have a huge crush on her. But how long have I had a crush on her? I know it started before I gave her the flower… She thought back as far as she could, remembering the first time she had met the flower girl, nearly a year ago. To her dismay, she recalled a then-confusing spark of something in her chest at the sight of the auburn-haired girl. God, this is depressing. Has it really just been the entire time I've known her? The weight of the revelation knocked her on her back, her bed creaking as she flopped backward. I am pathetic.
The depressed girl was startled from her thoughts by a vibration against her leg, followed by the sound of piano music she had written and recorded herself. It was what she had set as the flower girl's ringtone. Before she could stop herself, her hand dove into the pocket of her shorts, grabbed her ringing phone, accepted the call, and raised the device to her face. Aw, crap.
"Uh, hello?" she asked hesitantly.
"Hi, Tifa!" came the cheerful call from the other end of the line.
"Aeris," the troubled fighter replied, just managing to keep her voice level, "What's up?"
"Not too much, except that I'm standing outside your front door! Get out here!"
From downstairs, Tifa heard a silly pattern being knocked on the front door. She laughed quietly when, after a moment, she heard her mother answer the door, only for the flower girl's voice to echo her protests through the phone. Aeris demanded the door be shut so she could knock until Tifa answered it.
"Hey, hey!" the fighter called, getting the older girl's attention, "Leave my poor mother alone, she doesn't need your knocking driving her bonkers."
"Then I suggest you get outside quickly!" Aeris shot back. Before Tifa could reply, she heard the sound of the flower girl's phone snapping shut, followed by the continuation of her ridiculous knocking from downstairs. The brawler stared at her phone for a moment, laughing in disbelief. Funny how one person can get me down in the dumps, then drag me right back out into the sun.
She hopped off her bed excitedly, running down the stairs three at a time. She very nearly skipped through the dining room, catching a raised eyebrow from her mother, who was sitting at the table with a teacup in hand.
"Your mood has certainly improved," the older woman commented with a smirk.
Tifa looked back at her, torn between responding to the comment and responding to Aeris' incessant knocking.
"Huh?" she eventually blurted.
"Well," her mother explained, that questionable smirk still in place, "You've been upstairs brooding for the last twenty minutes, before which you hurled Cloud out the front door. Now you're practically glowing." Her smirk grew. "I'm just saying, it seems like a pretty sudden change."
"Uhh… I don't-"
"Now, now," the elder Lockheart interjected, "You'd better hurry outside. I wouldn't want your girlfriend to knock a hole in our door by way of erosion."
At that, Tifa lit up like a tomato.
"She's not-!"
"Ah, ah! Shoo! Hurry up, the noise is actually starting to annoy me."
Frowning deeply against the burning blush in her face, the young martial artist about-faced and marched to the front door, yanking it open as soon as it was in reach. She found Aeris crouched on the ground, hands still extended to what was now Tifa's shins. After a moment of confused silence, the girl popped up to her feet, acting as though nothing odd had happened. Tifa just stared at her.
"… Were you knocking on the bottom of the door?" the confused fighter asked suddenly.
"I'm pretty sure I knocked on every part of the door, actually," the shorter girl cheerfully replied, before donning an expression of mock-annoyance, "Someone certainly gave me enough time to do so."
"Yeah, well, my mom decided she needed to have a talk with me."
The red-faced teen glared back over her shoulder at her mother, who smirked and tipped her cup before taking a loud sip from it. Tifa shook her head and turned back to her friend.
"Come on, let's get out of here," she half-growled.
"Okay!" Aeris replied, waving over Tifa's shoulder "Bye, Mrs. Lockheart!"
The woman gave a small return wave, just before her daughter slammed the door.
Seems like Tifa just can't catch a break today. I love how much of a dork Aeris is, though.