Chapter 24: Bar Flies
Nothing drastic changed immediately and yet a thousand little things seemed to change at the same time. Leon still went out at odd hours but now Tifa heard what he came back with. News, rumors, gossip… layouts, explosives, stolen or bought security codes… Barrett stayed as well. He and Leon were busy building something in the basement – Tifa was glad it was a hidden room and not a bomb. Barrett also stayed, Tifa suspected, because of Cloud. Cid remained at the bar but as Shera slowly got better started to leave her side to wander, helping out where he could. Soon Tifa's boiler in the basement was running better than it had the day it had been put there and the dozen or so little appliances around the house were either fixed or in pieces waiting to be fixed. Which made things interesting when Tifa needed one of them and came across it in the kitchen in a hundred or so little pieces. Cid had a tendency to forget to ask before he went to work. Shera got better a little bit at a time and Tifa was surprised to find that Cid avoided her whenever she was conscious. Tifa's father… didn't get better. But he didn't get worse either. Waking up enough to take broth or soup, dipping back into sleep, coming awake again briefly to complain or simply stare at the wall, tears leaking silently from his eyes. The biggest surprise of all for Tifa was the day she found Shera had staggered her way into the room and was sitting in a chair next to her father holding his hand while he slept. She gave Tifa an apologetic look.
"He was making noise and – you were busy downstairs with dinner and – I feel so useless just lying there in bed all day long. He thinks – I think he thinks I'm – "
"My mother" Tifa supplied. Not that she thought Shera and her mother looked that alike, though, granted, her memories of her own mother were blurred and vague. Hints more than solid pictures in her mind. But Shera had brown hair and the last time Aerith, with her brown hair, had come in, her father had called her by his dead wife's name. Shera nodded, looking embarrassed.
"Is that okay?" she asked and Tifa had to smile softly even though it put a bolt of pain through her heart. She nodded.
"It's okay. If it makes him feel better, it's okay."
Shera's shoulders relaxed and she smiled, pushing her glasses back up on her nose. Tifa hadn't even known that Shera wore glasses until Leon had brought some back for her.
"If he wakes up, get him to eat" Tifa set the tray she'd brought in down on the nightstand and then transferred what she'd been meaning to bring into the other room for Shera to that tray as well. "And don't let him wear you out. When you start to get tired its okay to leave him and go back to bed."
Shera nodded, looking vaguely embarrassed at the attention.
"Thanks, Tifa."
Tifa gave her a smile and started for the door. Before she opened it though she turned back around.
"Shera – " she asked. "Did you – see the SOLDIER that did that to you?"
Shera shook her head with a frown.
"No. He hit me from behind. I don't even remember that really well."
Tifa nodded and let herself back out of the room. To find Cid standing outside her bedroom door, looking hesitant. It made her smile.
"She's in here," she told him. "But she's awake."
Cid snorted.
"Wasn't lookin' for her anyway," he stated. But he went back downstairs without whatever it was he'd been 'lookin' for'.
Aerith came and went but mostly she came. Tifa's place was much more interesting than her own, she told her friend and Tifa certainly didn't mind having Aerith's quiet presence and constant support.
Yuffie was – Yuffie. The computer and the slow internet connection were a source of constant annoyance to her apparently but she spent inordinate amounts of time on them anyway. She immediately adopted – or rather, was adopted by – Denzel and Marlene and the three of them could often be found in the corner of the bar when it was closed, heads close together and deep in – well, Tifa just assumed it was Pure Evil and left it at that. Yuffie also somehow managed to convince Leon to take her along on some of his trips. The girl was constant motion but also constant happiness and Tifa enjoyed having her around.
Her brother was much less obvious but Tifa was very aware of him and what he was doing as well. On the whole, Cloud seemed content to stay in the house, though from time to time he would disappear and come back at odd hours of the night and once he disappeared for a full twenty four hours. Tifa didn't panic because Yuffie didn't panic. He slept a great deal, still recovering from the mako poisoning and was quietly helpful. Tifa found her mix matched bar furniture didn't wobble the way it had used to and when she'd mentioned it to Cid he'd just given her a blank look. Denzel adored Cloud and would spend the hours after he got back from school following the older man around. Tifa often came across them to find Cloud sitting at the table with a map out and Denzel either doing his homework in the seat next to him or else, more often, asking Cloud about the places on the map. Cloud's seemed very well traveled though his answers tended to be more strategic than descriptive but it didn't seem to matter to Denzel.
As far as Tifa could tell – there were no sword lessons going on.
She did ask him about it one night though.
The bar was open, which meant most of her 'house guests' were elsewhere. Cloud however had developed the habit of sitting on a bar stool at the very end of the bar furthest from the door the entire time the bar was open. Each night he would slip in at some point after Tifa opened the bar and take up his usual spot. The patrons had learned to leave it empty for him. Tifa would slip him a drink and he would sit with it on the bar in front of him and nurse it the entire night.
The first few nights he showed up and took up his position, the regular patrons eyed him dubiously. By the third or fourth night they'd taken to ignoring him because he wasn't interesting and he wasn't threatening. By the end of the week, there would be glances toward the door from time to time until he arrived. Tifa found it – strangely endearing.
Cloud always came in the front door when he would come into the bar, never from inside the house. He'd been out roaming the first time but the second time, Tifa was sure he'd been upstairs with the kids originally. It wasn't until one of the older men who always came in to 'unwind' before going home to his family commented that it looked like she had an admirer that it occurred to her why Cloud was using the front door. When she brought him his drink the next night, she set it down in front of him and leaned on her elbows. He wrapped a dark gloved hand around the drink and tipped his head just the littlest bit to look at her with waiting eyes. She let him wait for a long minute before intentionally glancing to the front door he'd just walked in and then back at him. She knew he'd been upstairs beforehand because she'd checked.
"Guarding my reputation?" she asked with a teasing smile and had the pleasure of watching color flush across his cheeks before he ducked his head to take a swallow of his drink. Light she touched his other arm that was resting on the bar top.
"You're a sweet man, Cloud," she told him gently, even though men didn't generally like being called 'sweet'. Then she went back to her work. But she couldn't keep the content smile from her lips and she was aware of his eyes on her as she worked.
When the door opened, she felt the shift in the room even before she turned to see who it was. Tifa's bar was open to almost anyone that was willing to consider it neutral territory and not cause trouble. Gil was gil and the bills didn't care who it had come from as long as they got paid.
Serving 'anyone' included serving Turks.
"Hey, Tifa" a lean, lanky red head who gave an entirely neon spin to the word 'red' dropped down onto one of the bar stools. He could give Cloud a run in the 'spiky hair' department. The man who had been sitting on the stool next to him immediately picked up his drink and moved to a table but the Turk ignored it.
"Reno" Tifa nodded to the man's silent and imposing companion. "Rude." The tall, bald man at the shorter red head's shoulder nodded in return and settled down onto a stool next to his partner, shifting so he could keep an eye on the room and the door.
"Slow night?" Tifa asked and Reno grinned boyishly.
"oh you know how it is. Sometimes you just gotta play hooky."
"I have kids," Tifa reminded him with a shake of her head and a smile at his attitude as she poured him his usual drink. "Hooky's a forbidden word."
Reno just grinned at her.
"Why don't I believe that for a minute? You might have everyone else fooled" he took the drink she set in front of him. "But you're a party girl. I can tell."
"Am I?" Tifa arched an eyebrow at him as she poured Rude his usual as well.
"Oh yeah!" Reno was sure of it as he tossed back his first drink and offered his glass for another. "You pretend you're all quiet and responsible and maternal but it's always the quiet ones you've got to watch out for."
Tifa stopped herself from shooting Cloud a look. Reno was waxing on philosophically now that he had a second drink in front of him.
"The quiet ones are the wild ones. It's cause they don't get to blow off their steam a little at a time like us normal people do. So when it blows – it all blows! Like Rude here" he gestured to his silent companion. "Biggest partier in town. Really!"
Rude's eyes, hidden behind their sunglasses, still managed to meet Tifa's when she shot him a look and the dryness of it could have earned Tifa another full house of drinks. She stifled her smile and collected the empty glasses off the bar.
Reno was nodding and relaxing back against the bar, apparently settling in for the night.
"Now, Tseng, he's not a partier. You'd think he is – on account of him being so quiet, but he's not. He's not quiet, I mean. He's just boring. Dry, dull, boring. He doesn't talk cause he doesn't have anything to say, not cause he's not saying anything. You know? So that doesn't count."
"Is Tseng still stalking my friend?" Tifa asked without malice and Reno shrugged and offered his empty glass for a refill.
"The flower girl? Probably. Now she's a party girl too but not a wild one like you are. Cause she's not quiet, you see? Polite, but not quiet."
Tifa nodded her thanks to the men that were leaving their money on the bar and heading out. That was one thing about the Turks showing up – or rather Reno and therefore Rude – who were the only Turks that came to Tifa's bar. It cleared everyone else out pretty quickly. Drawing a Turk's attention was generally considered a bad thing down here and generally Tifa agreed. She wasn't worried about Reno or Rude though. They came in often enough she knew they just wanted to slum.
Not that she thought for a second they'd show mercy if they ever did decide she was dangerous to them. Or they were being paid.
Nicely enough, even though he chased out most of her customers just by existing, Reno drank enough, and expensive enough stuff, that he paid for it. Tifa poured him another drink and moved out into the bar itself to pick up glasses and put them on a tray to carry back for washing. Reno swiveled in his chair so he could continue his conversation with her.
"Now me? I'm a party guy. Hard core. But I don't have to be quiet. Cause I've got enough fire to burn all night and day, right? So I don't mind the quiet types. I like 'em." He nodded like a schoolboy approving what he found in his lunch bag. "That's why they put me with Rude. Cause it's a good mix. How 'bout you, Tifa?" He swiveled again as she went around behind the bar and started to unload the trays. "You like 'em quiet or fiery?"
Bringing the tray back, she was aware of Cloud a second before she turned around and it was the only thing that kept her from slamming into him as she suddenly found him behind her. Behind the bar counter. She caught the faintest scent of lightening they were so close… and then he was taking the glasses from her and setting them in the sink. She wasn't the only one he'd apparently startled because Reno burst out with a –
"What tha – who?" He looked at Rude – who was straightening his tie and not available and then back at Cloud. Then Tifa.
"You got hired help now?"
Tifa shrugged and offered a brief smile.
"He's cheap labor." Not at all sure what Cloud was doing. Aside from unloading the trays she'd brought over to set the glasses in the sink that was. Reno looked suspiciously at the blond but Cloud was ignoring everything while he stacked dishes.
Reno contemplated this for a little while as Tifa refilled his glass. Cloud started washing the glasses with practiced ease and it wasn't until he set the first one down to dry that Tifa realized why it looked so practiced. He was washing glasses exactly the way she did down to the number of times she ran the wash cloth around the rim of each glass and the way she set them with the handles all pointing the same direction.
"I don't know if you should have a guy helpin' out, Tifa" Reno opinionated after careful study. "Guys come in here to look at you. Having hired muscle around might put a damper on that."
Tifa gave the red head a dry look. Understanding where his partner got his store of them from.
"You're still here" she commented and Reno gave her a charming grin.
"It'll take more than some guy to scare me away, Tifa. I love you more than that."
She snorted her laugh and filled his glass again.
"I've also heard you say you love your jacket, that particular bar stool, hot days and, when you've had enough to drink, Rude."
"Well, Rude is pretty charming" Reno grinned. "And you know I like the quiet ones."
Tifa laughed and shook her head at him.
"I'm sure they like you too. Now get out of my bar. You've scared off all my customers for the night and I'd like to close down and actually get to bed before the crack of dawn for a change."
"You hear that?" Reno asked Rude. "She said she liked me. Cause I said she was quiet and she just said quiet ones like me."
"Then don't make me stop liking you" Tifa warned, collecting Rude's glass as he passed it politely to her. Reno just kept grinning, but he did finish his drink and as he handed it back to her, he asked:
"Go out with me, Tifa. We'll have fun."
She laughed, not for a moment taking him seriously and he just smiled cheerfully back at her. She jerked her thumb toward the door.
"The Honey Bee is that way, Turk."
"You wound me," he protested, hand dramatically over his heart and she shook her head at him. But he did stand up and Rude followed suit. The money Reno dropped on the bar top was enough for the drinks and a generous tip. In other words, almost a week's earnings. He gave her a crooked smile and, for just a moment, his blue eyes said he knew what that kind of money meant to her. Then the mischief was back in his eyes and he was sauntering toward the door, Rude at his shoulder.
"I'll be back" he waved a hand over his shoulder. "Make sure your washing boy doesn't break any glasses."
The door shut behind him and his partner and Tifa moved over to lock it and flip the 'closed' sign to show. Then she walked back behind the counter. Cloud was still washing glasses, for all the world looking as if that was all he'd been aware of. Tifa collected the last two glasses and set them down near his hand. Those too went into the water without comment. Under the water, up, under the water, up. Outside of the glass, inside, careful in the bottom, around the lip, one, two, three, under the water, outside, inside, upside down, twist and set on the drying rack, handle outward and tilted right. Tifa watched him run through her entire routine silently and then took the bar rag and started wiping everything down. When he was finished with the glasses, Cloud brought the broom out from behind the counter and started to sweep. Starting in the same corner Tifa always started in. Tifa emptied out ashtrays and cleaned down tables and chairs. The room was silent except for the sounds of their work and it wasn't a bad silence. To Tifa it felt like that calm pause in between breaths. Tifa didn't ask why he had suddenly showed up to wash glasses and Cloud didn't ask how she was so friendly with Turks. Because – it just didn't seem to matter between the two of them…
Her bar was clean and ready for the next day in no time at all and Tifa put away her cleaning rag with a satisfied sigh, resting her hands on her hips as she surveyed the now empty room.
"It's so early I almost don't know what to do with myself," she stated with real pleasure at the thought of having a night, or half of it at least, 'off'. Cloud looked up from where he was putting the broom away.
"Take a walk with me."
It surprised her and she turned to look at him.
"Now?"
He nodded, just once, a momentary tuck of his chin, blue eyes watching and watchful. It was after dark, they were in the slums, it wasn't exactly safe – she should be getting sleep while she could… Her smile started and then spread.
"It's cold out there," she protested. But she was already walking over to the door to pull down her jacket.
"I'm warm," his soft voice provided and from anyone else it would have been a line. From Cloud it was just true. And strangely innocent.
So Tifa hid her blush by pulling on her jacket and murmured her:
"Okay."
Cloud went upstairs while she slipped on her gloves and when he came back down his oversized sword was slung across his back. He usually left it in her bedroom and Tifa could understand why. It was impossible not to notice him when he wore it. He was wearing it now though over his jacket, pulling back on the gloves he'd taken off to wash the dishes. Eying him and the casual way he wore his sword, she asked:
"Did you promise to teach Denzel how to use your sword?"
His eyes flicked up to meet hers and for just a moment, there was laughter in that blue.
"Not my sword" he answered.
