A/N: I just want to greet my Filipino readers. Musta naman? hahahah. Salamat sa pagbasa at sana na naeenjoy nyo 'to. *Thumbs up*
Thirty three: Zack's birthday bash (or bashed)
"Grumpie... Wake up..." Tifa said in her sweetest voice.
"Mmmm... Come here baby... Come back to bed..."
"Cloud..." Tifa called, a little lower.
"Trollie..."
"Cloud..." Tifa called, in a creepily low octave. That's when Cloud knitted his eyebrows before he slowly opened his eyes, only for them to suddenly widen when he saw someone standing over him with a very realistic horse face as a head. Cloud started screaming like a girl on top of his lungs.
"WAKEY WAKEY." Said the human horse in an even creepier voice which made Cloud fall out of the bed while still screaming.
Cloud bolted up from his nightmare only to find an identical human horse in front of him. He screamed for the second time that morning.
"WAKEY WAKEY." Tifa said in a creepy voice before she started laughing while she removed the realistic horse mask over her head. Cloud stopped screaming to look at her with his eyes filled with fury.
"You. Are. Going. To. Pay. For. That." He said each word with his nostril's flaring up. Tifa raised an eyebrow.
"And just how are you going to do that?" She asked.
"By punishing you."
Tifa didn't know what she's gotten herself into, until much later.
"WAIT! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" Tifa asked a butt naked Cloud Strife, who was wearing the horse mask over his head.
"Your punishment." He said before he started hovering over her.
"WHAT! NO! OH GODS NO! THAT IS SO WRONG ON SO MANY LEVELS!"
Tifa cried with no tears while she lay on her bare back, Cloud was still on his horse mask while he too laid on his back beside her. Behind the mask was a nasty smirk on his face.
"I had sex with a human horse." Tifa said she started crying with no tears again. "I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life."
"Hey Tifa." Zack said on the other line, Tifa was stirring her coffee, trying to get rid of the distrubing image of Cloud the human horse from that morning.
"Hey Zack."
"Hey, listen, today's my birthday and-"
"IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY?! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"
"Who's birthday is it?" Cloud asked but Tifa ignored him.
"Yeah well, I'm inviting you and your Grumpie to come with me, we'll go to a lot of fun places today, which is one thing I've never done for a long time. Yuffie and Vincent are coming too."
"Really?! I'd love to! But do I need to bring Cloud along?" Tifa asked.
"Hey!" Cloud yelled.
"But what about our jobs?" Tifa asked.
"It's been taken care of?" Zack said.
"Really? You could do that?"
"Of course! Now, I'll pick you guys up in an hour, is that alright? Be sure to wear your contacts okay?"
"Ummm... Okay? Yeah."
"Okay! See ya!"
"Who was that?" Cloud asked, who was now sitting across from her on the dining table in the kitchen.
"Zack." Tifa said weakly.
"What's with you?" He asked before he took a sip of his coffee.
"I'm having nightmares while still awake." She said before she slammed her forehead on the table. Cloud started chuckling.
"You brought that one to yourself." He said, Tifa looked up with a scowl, then she slammed back down.
"Yeah, I guess your right." She said. "Zack has a birthday celebration, and we're going."
"We have jobs." Cloud retorted, just then, he received a text from Tseng which says:
Zack asked a favor, enjoy your day with him.
"What the hell?"
"We better get ready."
"Where are we going?"
"I'm going alone if you don't want to."
"Is Vincent going?"
"Yeah."
"Then I'm coming."
The horse mask found its way on the trash bin later that morning, never to be mentioned again.
"I hope you burn in hell." Tifa muttered under her breath while she stared menacingly at the thing.
"You do realize that Aerith will be there, too." Cloud said while they waited just on the entrance of the building.
"I know that! But this is Zack, it was thanks to him that I got where I am now, so I need to come. I don't care about Aerith." She said, Cloud only grunted in response. Just then, a minivan stopped in front of the building, they saw the windows roll down to see a waving Zack on the driver's seat. Tifa smiled but her smile instantly faltered when she saw a snooty looking Aerith on the passenger seat. Cloud rolled his eyes before he started following his fiancee, who was now walking towards the pair.
"Hey Zack!" Tifa greeted.
"Hey!" He greeted back, Tifa looked at Aerith.
"Hey." She said flatly.
"Hey." Aerith responded just as flat, not really looking at the brunette. Zack cleared his throat before he spoke.
"Come on in!" Zack said, Tifa went to back and opened the door only to find Vincent and Yuffie, who was quiet the entire time. Tifa and Yuffie shrieked loudly which made the guys wince and Aerith roll her eyes. The bestfriends hugged each other then Tifa slid in, followed by Cloud, who closed the door next to him.
"Where are we going Zack?" Cloud asked in a deadpan tone as he grabbed Tifa's hand to intertwine their fingers, who was busy chatting up a storm with Yuffie.
"We'll grab some food first then we go to the first place."
They were gathered in a large indoor arena wearing dark green overalls, some clear eye goggles and some riffles on their hands. It was paintball.
"I've never played this before." Tifa said as Cloud helped her adjust her goggles. "Oh that's why he asked me to wear my contacts."
"Okay, we'll divide into teams, but we can't just decide, so I brought this." Zack showed them some popsicle sticks with colored ends, three blues and three reds. Everyone raised an eyebrow.
"You actually brought that." Cloud said flatly, Zack ignored him.
"Those with the same color gets to be on the same team." He arranged the sticks vertically then hid the colored ends on the palm of his hand.
"This is stupid." Cloud said as he picked a stick. Tifa shushed him. He looked at his. Red. Tifa looked at hers. Blue. "What the?" Cloud said disapprovingly.
"I have red, what you got?" Yuffie asked Vincent, who showed her a blue end stick, she pouted childishly.
"I have red." Zack said, and that's when Tifa was hit by a realization.
Which means. She looked at Aerith, who was holding a blue end stick. Oh hell.
"Alright, join your teams please."
The blue team, which was composed of Vincent, Aerith and Tifa faced the red team in front of them, which was composed of Cloud, Zack and Yuffie, who has their game faces on, if looks could only kill.
What the fuck? Tifa thought as she looked at her fiance.
"I never knew..." Aerith started talking quietly that only Tifa could hear. The brunette listened intently. "That we'll be teamed up like this. For the sake of Zack, I want no war between us at the moment." She said, Tifa nodded.
"Yeah but, why are you mad at me again?" Tifa asked in a hushed tone.
"Because you punched me and made me throw up all over Cloud's carpet."
"Oh yeah."
"I'll make you pay for that."
"That's right, let's just get our frustrations out and... Beat the crap out of each other when this is over." Tifa said nonchalantly, Vincent looked at them both with a perplexed look, who was actually hearing what they were saying.
Tifa and Aerith hid behind walls were near each other as they watched the red team on the other side.
"Have you done this before?" Tifa asked Aerith in a whisper.
"Zack always brought me here."
"Oh."
"Hey! Aren't you coming out?!" Zack yelled from the other side.
"Why don't you come out first if you're so brave!" Tifa yelled back, she could hear laughter from three people on the other side.
"Are you scared?" Aerith asked in a hushed tone.
"Yes." Tifa responded as a matter of factly.
"I knew you were a wimp." Aerith said again, Tifa gave her a look with her mouth wide open.
"Who the hell are you calling a wimp?!" She hissed.
"You, because you could only beat someone who is drunk, like what you did with me." Aerith hissed back.
"First of all! I didn't beat you! Second, I could beat you right here if you're asking for it!" Tifa hissed back, Aerith was about to retort when Vincent cleared his throat, both ladies looked ahead to see shadows moving forward.
"Oh shit!" Tifa hissed again. She saw Aerith aiming her riffle to someone. Tifa decided to move forward so she ran towards the next wall, she could already see Yuffie and Cloud, she aimed her riffle towards her bestfriend but she moved away, Tifa unconsciously followed Yuffie, revealing herself to everyone. "Oh crap!" She braced herself for the attack, but it came from an very least person she expected, mainly because she was on her own team.
"Sweet dreams, chicken pie." Aerith said in a sultry voice before she fired her riffle and hit Tifa on her shoulders. Tifa started screaming while she fell down to the ground while Aerith blew the end on her rifle with a smug look on her face, Vincent stared at the green eyed beauty with a perplexed look.
"NO!" Cloud yelled then he jumped over to where Tifa had fallen.
"What the fuck?!" Yuffie yelled, "Oi! That's from the other team ass wipe!" But Cloud wasn't listening, he was kneeling down beside Tifa's fallen body while screaming in anguish.
"You... You..." Tifa called out, she pulled Cloud's collar towards her before she spoke. "Tell Cloud... That I love him..."
"This is me! This is Cloud!" The blond model yelled while gesturing to himself.
"Is... Is that really you...? Wait... I can't see! My vision is blurring! I'm losing the battle!" Tifa exclaimed while still clutching Cloud's collar.
"NO! STAY WITH ME! DON'T GO!"
"Good...bye... Cloud..." Tifa took her last breath before her hands fell down limply from his collar. Cloud's lips started quivering before he looked up in the ceiling to voice his anguish.
"NO!" He yelled the word longer than necessary, then he was suddenly hit by a paintball on his head which caused him to fall down over Tifa's 'body', also gone from this world. Yuffie threw her riffle in the air unceremoniously, which was aimed on Cloud's head just seconds before.
"I don't want this anymore. This sucks!" She yelled before started walking away. Zack was suffering from fits of silent laughter, already red in the face while he looked down at the fallen couple while Vincent was still wearing his very perplexed look.
Aerith on the other hand had one eyebrow raised as she stared down at Tifa's broken body.
This isn't over, chicken pie.
To be continued...