Disclaimer: I do not own any character in any shape or form. They belong to Square Enix :)

Author's note: Thanks to those who have reviewed, faved and followed! Here's the next chapter! Sorry for the long wait (^_^)

Popularity Feud

Chapter 10

Today is the day in which Sephiroth and Tifa both embark on a journey as a couple. Well, not quite. As we all know, this relationship is a faux. Sephiroth lured Tifa into his hands so that he and his group would be able to crush their enemy. The Avalanche. Most of the reason for the dispute between two groups is because of popularity and school ranks. But that is only half of it. The other half truly shows why The Populars and The Avalanche are fighting against each other.

And today is that day… to find out.

"Coming!" Tifa yelled from her room while fixing her uniform. She let her hair down and slipped on her shoes. Slowly, she walked towards the main door of the apartment, brushing her hair in the process. Tifa opened the door, surprised to see the person she wasn't expecting.

Cloud stood outside her apartment, his bag in one hand and a paper bag of donuts in the other.

"Good Mornin' Teef," He said, smiling and waving the bag in front of her. "Ready to go?"

Tifa panicked, she had totally forgotten about the situation with Cloud. She couldn't tell him about the whole ordeal with Sephiroth or he would explode. "Not really, say how about you go first?"

"Huh? But… we always go to school together on Tuesdays. I even bought you some donuts…" Cloud said in low, rejected voice. Normally, he wouldn't even bother buying some breakfast for Tifa because he knew that she had already eaten before they leave. But today is different; it's the day that he is going to show as much affection he had for her, even if it was difficult for him.

"I know you did, but… I'm meeting up with Elena this morning to discuss about our project for Health Class," She said guiltily. Guilty for lying. Guilty for… everything that happened yesterday. "I'm sorry…"

"It's alright… I suppose." Cloud's energetic morning turned for the worse and he tried to cover it from her. He looked back at her, with his emotionless eyes staring back at her saddened ones. "I'll see you later at lunch then. Bye."

And with that… He left.

Tifa stared at the empty air in front of her, her heart aching for lying to her best friend who she loved so much ever since they were young. Why did she even agree to go out with Sephiroth in the first place, she thought. Well the reason… was to help Cloud out, to learn the reason for their feud, to know if what he said was really true. She was basically a spy for her group, she decided. In order to save her group, she must go to lengths and sacrifice. It may seem cowardly for such a strong and kind hearted woman like her, but it is what she has to do in order to help her group defeat the enemy. Even if it means heartbreak and betrayal.

Tifa sat on the couch in her living room; she has only an hour left before the school starts. She felt as though she was going against every bone in her body waiting for him. She flipped her phone and wrote to him, practically agitated by his tardiness.

'Where are you?' Sent 7:00 am

'Just outside your apartment' Sent 7:00 am

A knock can be heard and Tifa smirked to herself. She stuffed her phone in her bag, grabbed her keys and walked towards the door. She opened it to find Sephiroth leaning on the door frame, currently blocking her way to the outside world. He smirked at her as she struggled to find a way out and eventually chuckled. She stared at him, angry for playing games so early in the morning.

"What? Not even a Good Morning kiss?" He asked, lacing his tone with a bit of playfulness in it. It sounded like he was teasing her.

"You're asking for too much, buddy." She spat back, crossing her arms and tapping her foot.

"Buddy? Is that what you're going to start calling me now?" He chuckled.

"Yup, I won't give you any sweet names or anything. Unless you earned it," She said smiling, and pushed him a little in order to escape from his trap. Sephiroth grabbed her and carried her – no not like a sack of potatoes from previous chapters – bridal style. She was stunned but then started wriggling around in order to get down.

"Get me down you jerk!" She exclaimed, practically damaging his eardrums. He didn't pay any attention and continued walking downstairs and towards his car that was parked outside. He placed her inside, closed the door and went to the other side to get in. Once seated and secured himself with the seat belt, the driver took off heading to their school.

During the whole ride, Tifa was pretty quiet and Sephiroth noticed this. He looked at her, studying her face carefully. She looked troubled, but what for? He wondered.

"What's wrong?" He asked, causing to snap her out of her daze. She looked at him for a brief second before looking outside the window.

"Don't you think, everything's too fast?" She asked, never breaking her gaze from the view of the city.

"What is?" He inquired, trying his best to not know. But deep inside he did. He knew what she was talking about. It was about him, her… them.

"You, Me, our relationship." She said lowly, but not low enough for him to miss. She turned her head to look at him, their eyes were glued to each other for a second before dropping her gaze from his.

"Yes, I think it is… Do you object to it? Our relationship," He asked, curious to what answer she would produce. He added a bit of rejection and sadness to his tone in order to convince her that he was actually in love with her.

"N-No… Not really. But I don't think I'm ready to be open about it in school…" She said, her voice cracking due to her nervousness. If I am going to be his girlfriend.. It would be best if it's going to be a secret for now, before I am ready to break the news.

"So you're saying that we should be secret lovers for now then?" He repeated in his own words, suddenly liking her idea. He wouldn't be too grateful if the chocobo haired teenager started to declare war on him if he knew about them. He mentally smirked. Yes this could be very good for my plan.

"Yes, if it's not too much too ask," She said, hoping that he would accept. He reached out to her, his hand caressing her face. She looked at him with wide eyes.

"Alright, I'm willing to keep it a secret," He hugged her, and she hugged back. Happiness dwelled inside her, but at the same time anxiety started to seep in to her nerves. She was nervous on what her friends reactions would be, and if it was going to cause any difference in their relationships.

"Thank you."

It is approximately three pm and the students were preparing to go to their clubs. Some who were too busy or had no care at all, left the school to either go home or sing karaoke. The school is buzzing with people chattering and the sounds of items being reorganized.

The Avalanche went towards the gymnasium; they were now the founder of the Judo Club. They all changed into their uniforms and once they finished, Barret took out a colored duct tape. He drew a line that divided the gym in half. Since they were a new club, they had to share the gymnasium with the Kendo Club… which was created by The Populars.

Ever since the Judo Club was created, the amount of students the Kendo Club had, lessened. Almost 80 % of the males in their club transferred to the Judo Club…why? Because they wanted Tifa Lockhart to be their instructor. Who wouldn't? A pretty, kind, and strong female was a part of the ones who were teaching Judo to fellow students. Not to mention her assets were a bonus too.

The ones that stayed with the Kendo Club were the obsessed females and loyal males that were actually interested in the way of the sword. Of course since there were only a few students that were actually in the Kendo Club, they started to hate their neighboring club. The Judo Club. That was the start of the feud; of course it only started as a simple hatred towards the club, but then their members started over passing them in the school ranks and taking away their popularity. So things started to get serious.

The Kendo Club barely had any students that were fit to go to competitions and it bothered them. They were over powered by a woman with a beautiful body. That considered them as a laughing stock by the other club. They never faltered and continued to work with what they can.

It all started a year ago when The Avalanche first came to the school and decided to create their club. As their numbers grew, the Kendo Club's lessened. Who wanted to be taught by stoic men who were asking the best out of everyone? No one, that's who.

As the Judo Club started to warm up with their large number of students, the Kendo Club sat down and meditated with their own. No one saw the small exchange made by Tifa and Sephiroth as they briefly looked at each other, stealthily.

Sephiroth noticed why the males transferred to the Judo Club, Tifa's Judo uniform clung to her curves. It was clearly making her assets noticeable, somehow, this made Sephiroth's blood boil. He wondered why so and continued to train his student with his intense and vigorous training. He was teaching his students like pros and he would have it no other way. Sephiroth contemplated how Tifa would look with one his student's uniform and practicing Kendo instead of Judo.

Tifa was teaching her students the proper stances on how to throw a person, when to throw them and how to dodge one. She noticed how focused Sephiroth was when she looked at him at the corner of her eye. However, in her distracted state, she failed to notice the hand that came at her and before she knew it, she lying with her back to the ground.

Everyone turned to look at where the noise was, their eyes widened when they saw Tifa gasping for air and obviously lost a battle with one of her students. Rumors started to spread around as to why she was distracted and what the source of her distraction was. Tifa got up, faced her student and bowed. She patted the victor on the back and gave him a break. While her other students kept on practicing, she asked for another one. Hopefully this time, she thought, she would not be distracted anymore.

Tifa readied her stance and her student charged at her, she reflexively dodged the attacks, parried, and blocked. She had never given a punch, kick, or throw throughout the whole battle. Tifa noticed that her wrist was a bit off and hurting a little. She bit her lip and rubbed it, in the second that she did so, her student came running towards her and grabbed said wrist. Pain shot through out her body and she broke her wrist free from his grasp before she was thrown over yet again.

"Shit," She murmured. She dismissed her student and walked towards the benches. Tifa examined her wrist and noticed that was sprained, probably from the throw earlier. She wrapped a bandage around it and told herself to go to the nurse's office later in the day.

After an hour, Tifa told her fellow members that she has sprained her wrist and dismissed herself early today. Once she was done at the nurse's office, Tifa went home and worked on her homework. She was thankful that it was the left wrist that was sprained and not the right one.

'Hey what happened earlier?' Sent 7:40 pm

'Sprained my wrist, nothing big' Sent 7:40 pm

'Open your door' 7:41 pm

'Why?' Sent 7:41 pm

'Come see and find out' Sent 7:42 pm

'Ugh. Fine.' Sent 7:43 pm

Tifa walked towards her door, opened it and saw Sephiroth his long hair hid inside a beanie and his silver bangs were the only ones visible. He lifted a bag with Chinese take-out and smiled – a true smile – when he saw her almost drooling at the sight of food. He was dressed in a simple black shirt that clung to him, gray jeans and a pair of black chucks.

"I suppose you haven't had dinner yet?" He asked with a smirk plastered on his face.

"You are correct. Come on in," She ushered him inside the apartment. This time, Sephiroth took in everything he could see and walked towards the kitchen with Tifa. "Where's your driver?"

"Oh, I came here alone."

"Really? Wow, wouldn't your parents be worried?" She asked him while taking out two plates for the both of them.

"Not really, no." He replied bluntly. Sephiroth stood up and helped Tifa take out two glasses from the cupboard.

"Why did you come here anyway?" Tifa asked once they were finished preparing the table. She looked at him with curious eyes.

"Thought you could use some company and comfort," He replied with a shrug of his shoulders. Truthfully, he didn't even know as well. It was as if his body dragged him here without his consent.

"You being the company and food the comfort?" She asked then giggled. She received a dumb nod in response. Tifa hugged him out of the blue and stunned him.

"Thanks again,"

"It's not a problem."

They both ate, completely forgetting who they were and that they were enemies. Sephiroth had completely forgotten his plan in this moment, and talked to her with truth in his voice. Tifa had opened up with Sephiroth, talking about likes, dislikes and shared interests. Later in the night, they both watched a movie. Tifa screamed at the character for the mistakes he/she did and Sephiroth chuckled in the background. Near the end, she broke down sobbing when the couple separated and Sephiroth tried his best to end her crying fits.

The night was very eventful as their first day, it could be considered a first date too. Sephiroth fell asleep on the couch with Tifa on top of him, her eyes red from all the crying. They both didn't expect their night to end like this, with him holding her against him as he soothed her back in order to comfort her and her sleeping absentmindedly on top of him.

Oddly enough, neither minded the situation.

Author's Note: How was that? I tried to put some fluff. But I think I failed... HRMMM... Anyways. R&R! :D