Despite what Cloud had said, it was with first-date trepidation that he approached the Stargazerbucks™ promptly at 2:20pm. Zack had been true to his word, giving Cloud the extra ten minutes, then practically pushing him out of the department.
She was there behind the counter, laughing and talking with Biggs and Wedge, the stockboys. The other two guys were always trying to befriend him; it was only Cloud's own social anxiety that kept him from reciprocating. It was only Zack's overbearing sunniness and insistence on taking Cloud underneath his wing that had led to the two of them becoming friends; for the most part, Cloud was a loner.
Except he desperately wanted a girlfriend.
Scratch that. He wanted Tifa to be his girlfriend.
But what could she possibly see in him? Look at her, she's gorgeous. Any man would want her; she could have her pick. So what could she see in a dork like him?
Part of him wanted to turn around, run scared, maybe go puke in the bathroom a couple times like nothing had happened, even though Zack would find out eventually… but as his feet shuffled towards the coffee stand, even less able to reverse than to move forward, she looked up and waved.
Shit. Now he HAD to go through with it.
He patiently waited in line, at a loss for what to order, ready to just ask for water with a strawberry and be done with it… but Tifa seemed to be prepared. "Welcome back," she greeted him warmly. "Your usual?" And she gave him the coyest little nod; he could feel the roots of his hair catching fire.
"The usual," he agreed, having no idea what, in fact, his usual was.
She walked to the barista and whispered something; Cloud might have been jealous of the much taller man, had he not been so obviously gay. The man moved as if he was still in the club from last night; and between the eyeliner and the sparkly lip gloss, maybe that wasn't so far off.
He handed Tifa a twenty; she banged a couple keys before handing back three fives, five ones. Cloud snuck a glance behind him to make sure no one had noticed the no-sale on the register, but Tifa's hands were quick. He tried to drop a couple of those five in the tip jar, but she pushed his fisted money back – and he couldn't object any further, as another couple customers were already filling in behind him. He still worried – he didn't want to get Tifa in trouble. Loss Prevention was for customers – of the non-paying sort – but in-house stealing was handled by Heidegger, a man as big as Barret only with far less charm. It would mean automatic termination for Tifa, and possibly himself as well.
The only thing worse was a customer complaint landing on Scarlet's desk. How the hell was that woman in charge of "Human Resources", when she most clearly was not human herself, was beyond him. He just tried to stay the fuck away from anyone from Corporate.
Instead, he patiently waited by the canisters of sugar, pink fake sugar, blue fake sugar, yellow fake sugar, and brown real sugar, by the side of pitchers of whole milk, 2% milk, nonfat milk, creamy milk, extra creamy milk, oat milk, almond milk, soy milk, coconut milk, and the latest craze – chocobo milk. Cloud had been pretty sure Chocobos were birds, but apparently they had made it happen. Genetic engineering, probably. Eventually, the diva barista called his name. "Cloud?"
"Present," Cloud replied automatically, as if it was roll call at school.
The man put one hand on his hips, smiling as Cloud blushed and came forward to take his surprise beverage. "Here, darling," he practically cooed. Andrea, his nametag read. "Hope you enjoy my creation of beauty. And – " here Andrea leaned in close, rather closer to his ear than Cloud suspected health code allowed – "don't forget to take our short two-minute survey!" he said, in a low, seductive voice.
Out of the corner of his eye, Cloud could see Tifa giggling behind her hand.
Sulking, just a little embarrassed, Cloud grabbed the back corner table – one that gave him a nice side profile view of Tifa while keeping everyone else an arm's length away. He had a glare ready if anyone else decided to get too close. He could see Tifa beginning to cash out for break; she'd pulled her register, and another, very short girl sporting a black bob and enough pep to indicate that she'd had one FlappycinoTM too many, took over the register instead.
Cloud had barely begun sipping his drink, but he couldn't help admire… whatever it was. Some frozen thing, but not coffee – it was colorful layers, with some vaguely fruity flavors. He liked it.
"Like it?"
Tifa stood above him, her own large paper cup full of something substantially more caffeinated than his rainbow of fruit flavors. She pulled out a chair and sat at an adjacent side, allowing them both to look out into the store for the potential arrival of their unwelcome corporate visitor. They weren't technically supposed to sit in the café on break, though neither Barret nor Cid ever cared. But the worst case scenario, they'd have to make a quick dash for the restroom –
- the single restroom –
Suddenly, Cloud wanted very much for Rufus to appear right that instant.
"It's a bunch of our flavored ice teas, layered together," Tifa continued, though Cloud hadn't yet answered her question. "I don't know how Andrea does it, but he always manages to turn his beverages into art. See?"
She tilted her beverage a little towards him, so as not to disturb the delicate foam patterns on top. Cloud had no idea how the hell it had been done, but it appeared to be a bunch of stars coming out from behind –
"Is that a cloud?!" he asked. "Is Andrea making fun of me?"
Tifa, thankfully, didn't laugh, just a gentle smile. "More like inspired," she told him. "Didn't you check the label on your own drink?"
Cloud picked it up and raised it to eye level. Sure enough, on the plastic cup was sharpie'd a quick sketch of a cloud… with some stars added as an apparent afterthought.
"Well." He tried to gracefully recoup. "You guys made a good call. This is really good." Now that his pseudo-date was with him, he slurped his way through pink, orange, and yellow.
Tifa beamed. "You didn't seem like the sort who wanted an overstimulating beverage."
"I'm not." CLoud was now halfway through yellow. "But hey, what's that you have there? Long shift today?"
"No, actually. Just a couple hours to help in Returns during the afternoon rush. Mostly for Aerith – and the overtime doesn't hurt. But I have to study tonight."
"Oh? What do you study?" he asked, relieved to make at least some kind of small talk. "Do you go to U of Midgar or Junon State?"
"Junon," she told him.
"Me too," he replied. "UM is just… too expensive." He looked around appraisingly, as did she. UM was for the rich, no matter how stupid they were. Rufus had apparently gone there, the rare exception who was both rich AND intelligent. Even if in a really creepy way.
He said as much to Tifa, and she agreed. "I feel like Junon's system is just… more diverse," she told him. "It's better for what I'd like to do."
"Which is?" CLoud prompted. Anything to keep her talking.
"Well, my major is actually business administration," she told him. "I picked that to be practical. I'm from a small town, so I don't want miss any advantages of getting a proper education." She took a sip of her drink; Cloud decided not to tell her about the small milk mustache that had formed. It was just too cute. "But my minor is education. It doesn't pay as well, but I'd to work with children." She sighed, a bit melancholic. "What can I say, I just like children…"
"You don't need to justify it," Cloud assured her; then suddenly, recklessly, reached across the table to take her hand. Her eyes widened in surprise, before curling around his thumb in return.
OMGoddess they were actually touching –
Their eyes locked. His pants were getting tight. No, no, no… His spare hand reached for his drink; even half-melted, it was still icy enough to cool his ardor some. (Zack had been right. Definitely too long without a date.)
It was a long instant; until suddenly, they both broke the stare at once, overcome with shyness. "Well, ah," Tifa stuttered, "what do you study yourself?"
She seemed flustered. Cloud wondered why.
"Electrical engineering," he told her.
"Is that like… software?" Tifa asked, then blushed. "No. Sorry. That's a stupid question."
"It's not," he told her. "It's more… Mechanical. Building stuff. I've always been really good at taking things apart, putting them back together." He shrugged. "I like doing it, and it's a good way to make a living, you know?"
"I know," Tifa replied. "I, uh, try to send money back to my dad. Not much, now. But he's alone, and getting older…" She trailed off.
"Your mom?" Cloud asked carefully.
Tifa hung her head; he tried to say he was sorry, but she shushed him. "No, it's okay, it's been a while. She, uh, died when I was little… Cancer. A rare type. It might have been environmental pollution… We've never been sure."
"I'm sorry," Cloud replied, and this time Tifa didn't quiet him, knowing it was not an apology.
He waited to see if she would say something more; but the silence finally compelled him to fill up the space with his own words instead. "I lost my mom, too," he told her. "Never knew my dad, so she was all I had. She was a young mom; she was still so alive, so vibrant…" He swallowed; Tifa was hanging on his words. "It was… an accident. Electrical fire. Doesn't seem to have been arson. Just one of those things that happens in crowded Midgar buildings, I guess." It had been only a handful of years, but he still missed her every day. "The fire department said the carbon monoxide probably got to her first, she never even woke up. Didn't suffer…" He choked, unable to continue.
Tifa didn't need to say she was sorry as well. It was all in her eyes.
And somehow that was all the comfort Cloud needed.
"Strife. Lockhart." Cid Highwind had appeared out of nowhere.
"We were just – " Tifa protested, starting to get up.
"Stuff it, Lockhart. You've only taken seventeen minutes of your break and you're going to take the full half hour. This ain't fucking Walmarket, we don't make you work off the clock. But you – " he pointed at Cloud – "Zack says he stalled as long as he could, but he needs you for this one."
Cloud groaned. "Something he couldn't charm his way out of?"
"Exactly," Cid replied. "Goddess-damned old guy doesn't seem to understand he needs to buy a LightningMateria cord, not a ThunderMateria, even though Zack keeps trying to explain to him the Thunder only works on a Mechphone."
"And the guy has a FF," guessed Cloud.
"Exactly. The Thunder's cheaper, and he fucking wants the cheap one. And Zack even opened up a package, trying to explain it, and now this man is trying to cram the connector into someplace it clearly won't fit, and Zack wants your help before he breaks his phone and finds a way to blame it on us."
"I can't put Aerith through another bullshit return today," Cloud told Cid. Aerith had already accepted a return of… carrots. Cloud still hadn't heard the reason, but he was sure it would be something good. "I'll be there." Zack knew when to call on Cloud; Cloud would load them up with so many technical-sounding terms that the customer would either be too bewildered to argue, or too unwilling to admit he had no idea what Cloud was talking about.
Cloud was just rising, when Cid continued. "Barret wanted me to let you know, if you still are able to go over and watch Marlene for the couple hours until he gets home too, he'll make dinner for you. Then you can spend the rest of the evening studying over there as well, instead of that noisy house of roommates you live in."
"Roomates?" Cloud asked. He lived alone; maybe sometime he could offer… "Barret? Dinner?" he suddenly realized.
"I baby sit his daughter sometimes, when he's working late," Tifa told him. "And no, he's not much of a cook in general, but he does a mean Taco Tuesday."
Cid was already leaving; Cloud was about to say goodbye, before he thought of something else. "You said you're off in a couple hours," he told Tifa. "Do you, uh, maybe need a ride?"
"Oh, I'll just take the bus," she deflected. "Don't you need to study too?"
"I've got all my books," he told her. "They're safely locked up in my motorcycle."
Tifa looked stunned. "Wait. You have a motorcycle?"
"Well, yeah. Not much, it's just an old Hardy-Daytona. But I've got an extra helmet…"
Tifa blushed – actually blushed! "That's, uh, pretty hot," she admitted.
Cloud couldn't help a smirk. "Is that a yes?"
"It's a yes," Tifa told him. "So, should I tell Barret you like your tacos with vegetables, chicken, or beef?"