A/N: I can't even being to express how grateful I am for your support ^^ I honestly wasn't too sure with how I'd do with writing an AU for the first time. I usually rely on the safety net that preexisting canon provides, so I'm always scared about whether or not I'm making reasonable decisions in terms of story direction. I'm glad you're enjoying it though!
It's taking a lot longer than I thought to get to the Leo and Kate part of this fic…still mostly OG Cloti stuff right now. Fun fact, if you've noticed, I released the first chapter of this fic only several days after the Oscars this year. It was all that Leo x Kate hype around that time (and the excitement of Leo finally winning his Oscar!) combined with my preexisting love for Cloti that really gave birth to this fic. I just randomly thought that Leo x Kate and Cloud x Tifa were too similar in some regards and why can't they just get together already? I do already have Leo and Kate inspired scenes planned out, so look forward to them in the future!
Also, as you see Midgar does have have an upper plate, separating upper and lower areas of the city. For the purposes of this story not being involved with eco-destruction though, the lower area is not all slums. Only certain sectors under the plate will be slums, so Seventh Heaven and Tifa's apartment are in what I'd consider relatively normal, middle class areas. For this reason, I'll be calling this area the lower plate instead of the slums (even though it's technically not a plate but shhh I'm not very creative). The upper plate is intended to encompass upper middle class/upper class. Whenever the characters refer to just above or below the plate though, they'll be referring to the upper plate. Uhhh I hope that's not too confusing haha.
With all of that said and done, I'll have replies to reviews at the end of this chapter again. Thank you all again! ^^
Chapter 7 ~ Playing With Fire
"Cloud?"
He silently laughed to himself. For some reason, Tifa almost sounded mortified. "Did I catch you at a bad time?" he asked teasingly.
"N-no! I mean, everything's fine. Um, so what's up?"
Right, straight to business. Cloud silently thanked the universe for giving him an excuse to call Tifa. "So according to my manager, it's my job to tell you that we were invited to sit with the screenwriters in a meeting next week."
"This late?" He could imagine her scrunching her eyebrows in the way that she did when she was perplexed. "Wouldn't they have mostly finalized the screenplay at this point?"
"Apparently they're talking about possibly making major revisions. I do have some ideas I might want to bring up, so I think I'm gonna go."
"Huh. When is it? Sounds weird, but I'm down."
Realizing that this meant that he'd get an extra opportunity to see Tifa, Cloud felt a ridiculous joy bubble up in his chest. "Just text me your manager's info and I'll have my manager forward the email to you," he promised. He patted himself on the back for managing to sound casual. Maybe he should keep going. He recalled something else Tseng told him earlier that day. "By the way, word on the street is that a certain rabid director just finished casting."
Tifa's laughter was music to his ears. "Rabid? Why rabid?"
"Because he signed literally over half of them just this morning, apparently!" Cloud said. "It's unreal how fast this guy works."
His tone of mock incredulity earned him another round of giggles. "Well, Genesis did say that he already had people in mind for the other roles by the time he signed me," Tifa said.
"Go figure, that man is a mastermind," Cloud sighed. "But I guess that means that the first table read will be sooner than we thought it would be."
"Yeah, this is all going pretty fast, isn't it? I can't wait to meet the cast though!"
Cloud had to smile at how genuinely excited she sounded. "Excited to reunite with Cait Sith?" he asked teasingly.
"Cloud!" Tifa laughed again, and Cloud let a small chuckle escape him. "I really am looking forward to seeing Reeve again, though. He's such a nice man."
"He'll probably show up to the screenwriting meeting. He's one of the producers, after all."
"Mmm, I guess so…hey, Cloud?"
"Yeah?"
A silence followed, and Cloud felt a strange anxiety begin to twist his gut. She didn't remember, did she? Oh gods, if she did…
"Why haven't you called me before now?" Tifa asked quickly.
He certainly wasn't expecting that. Cloud blinked, before he realized that he had to produce an answer. He floundered around for an acceptable explanation. What came out, however, sounded less than convincing. "Oh…you know, I'm just really busy all the time…"
"I see." Her tone seemed flat. Ifrit, he must've sounded like a jerk. "Okay, well, I guess I'll see you later…"
"Wait." It was said out of pure impulse. Cloud realized that he was on route to an awkward silence, unless he came up with something.
"Yeah?"
He had nothing but his gut to go off of. Cloud inwardly winced as he decided to follow it, not even bothering to think it through. He didn't even know what was coming out of his mouth until it was already out.
"Maybe, we could…I mean…are you free right now? Where are you?" Smooth, Strife. He prayed that he didn't sound stupid.
"Cloud, what's this about? Is it about my manager's contact info? Didn't you say I could just text you?"
"No, I'm not talking about work." Ifrit, what was he doing?
"You mean…you just want to hang out? Just you and me?"
He liked the sound of that. "Just you and me," he affirmed.
"O-oh…okay! Yeah, I'm free right now. I'm at Seventh Heaven."
Cloud's eyes widened as he stopped dead in his tracks. He was standing less than a block away from the bar as they spoke. Despite himself, Cloud had found himself involuntarily gravitating towards the bar whenever he was below the plate for the past week. At first he'd never go inside, but would just lean against a nearby inn and watch the doors with a ridiculous little hope of catching a flash of the garnet eyes that haunted him from his childhood. His patience wore thin by day three though, and Cloud then progressed to slipping inside the bar to survey the crowd. He'd get a small drink every time of course, to mask the fact that he only entered to look for someone. He had never succeeded in "bumping into" her.
But she was there this time. He thought that with his dumb luck, she'd just happen to not be there. Funny how my timing doesn't work until I intentionally plan to meet up with her, Cloud thought sardonically. "Hm, you go there often?" he asked as he resumed walking.
"Recently I've been going almost every day," she admitted.
Damn it all. The gods must be toying with him, he decided, if he just happened to conveniently miss her every damn time until now. He just hoped that the bartender wouldn't let on to Tifa that he had started to become something of a regular himself. With that thought in mind, he approached the bar and pushed the door open.
"I happen to be close by at the moment," Cloud said quietly, looking around. So far, none of the patrons caught his eye as the one he was looking for. "I could meet you there."
"You're under the plate?"
He snorted at the shock in her voice. "I'm down here all the time." His eyes skimmed over a dark haired woman sitting alone at a table. No, she was too tall to be Tifa.
"Really? What for?"
"I can be normal too, can't I?" His stomach did a funny flip as he spotted a brunette facing the wall in a more vacant area by the restroom, holding a phone to her ear. One of her legs was bent back so that she was gently tapping the tip of her foot on the ground. Cloud recognized that quirk from when she was just a little girl.
"Well, yeah, but I'm not really that rich or famous yet," Tifa said. "And you're – "
"A normal human being like everyone else. C'mon Tifa, you of all people should know that," Cloud teased. He slowly approached the woman, and heard her voice match the one on his phone.
"Okay, okay, I get it," Tifa laughed. "But anyways, can we maybe meet somewhere else besides Seventh Heaven?"
Cloud smirked, and made sure to make his voice a little louder. "Why? I'm already here."
Tifa jumped and whirled around. Her garnet eyes were wide with shock, slightly hostile until recognition quickly filled them. That's right; Cloud almost forgot that he was wearing a cap to conceal his usually prominent blond hair. "Where did you come from?!" Tifa squeaked.
"I told you I was nearby," Cloud said casually as he closed his phone. "Did I catch you at a bad time?"
"A-ah…I've just been here for such a long time already, and I think I'm done with alcohol for the day," Tifa said with a nervous laugh. "If you don't mind, could we go somewhere el – "
"Tifa!" The voice made her jump. Cloud looked in the direction that it came from and focused on two men and one woman sitting in a booth. "We closed the tab. You can take your card back," the woman said.
"O-oh. Um, excuse me a moment," Tifa murmured, slipping away to her friends. Cloud frowned, before following carefully on her heels.
"Hey Tifa, who's your friend over there?" the taller of the men asked as they approached the booth.
"Oh, uh...he's just a coworker," Tifa said dismissively as she scooped up her credit card.
Cloud crossed his arms. "C'mon Tifa, is that all I am to you?" he said in mock offense. Tifa jumped as she became aware of Cloud standing behind her, making him smirk.
"Wait a minute." The woman leaned over and peered at him, trying to look underneath his visor. "Are you…?"
Cloud nodded and tugged at his cap so that it would reveal more of his eyes. Tifa's friends all widened their eyes. "Can you keep quiet though? I usually prefer keeping a low profile," he said. Normally, he'd disguise his voice to conceal his identity. Even the bartender didn't know his name yet. Yet Cloud realized that he wasn't too bothered by the thought of revealing himself to anyone Tifa considered a friend.
"Whoa, Cloud Strife?" the shorter man said in awe. "I never would've expected to see you in Sector 7, much less under the plate!"
"Oh, come on. It's not like I'm allergic to the lower plate!" Cloud said in exasperation, successfully earning him a giggle from Tifa.
"So what are you doing here?" the taller man asked. His suspicious tone caused Cloud to raise an eyebrow. "I imagine that Seventh Heaven isn't one of your everyday stops."
"Am I not allowed to see one of my old friends?" Cloud playfully nudged the seemingly petrified woman standing beside him, who jumped from his actions. He inwardly frowned, wondering why Tifa seemed so nervous. He didn't miss the glances being exchanged between Tifa's friends either.
"You wouldn't mind sitting with us for a bit, would you?" The shorter man wore an enthusiastic expression, one that Cloud had become familiar with in the recent years as starstruck admiration. Still concerned about Tifa though, Cloud glanced at her for a cue.
"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to stay a little longer," she mumbled.
The woman introduced herself as Jessie, and the men introduced themselves as Biggs and Wedge. Thankfully, Tifa deflected them from drilling Cloud with questions. She preferred herding them to make more casual, ordinary conversation with him, which was much appreciated. Eventually though, Tifa and her friends were caught up in telling him stories of the times they've spent together in Seventh Heaven. Cloud crossed his arms and sat back in silence, nodding or smirking where the appropriate reactions were needed.
Leviathan, what was he doing? He mentally kicked himself as he realized how bad a job he was doing with his façade, if he could really call it that. Cloud could pull of the slightly arrogant part, but he was doing a way too good job of making her smile. He just couldn't quite bring himself to be as cold and distant as he envisioned. Heck, his own impulse brought him to where he was, sitting beside Tifa. He hated how addictive she was, how his eyes kept wandering back to her. He so badly wanted to spend so much more time with her. Yet the steely grip of fear was stuck in his chest as he remembered his private vow. He couldn't stand the thought of Tifa's hatred, if she were ever to remember.
His eyes flickered up at the sound of Tifa's laughter. Her eyes were closed in mirth as she laughed, revealing her teeth as she smiled. Her cheeks were flushed a slight pink from breathlessness. She seemed to be glowing, and Cloud suddenly became conscious of his own breathing as he watched her.
He hated this. He hated that he didn't know what was going on in Tifa's head, but he was too afraid to risk it. Yes, Cloud had to admit to himself that he was being selfish with the bond he was forming with her in the present. It was just plain dangerous. At the same time, he didn't know if it would be better or worse to bring up the incident.
The only thing Cloud hated more than the ambiguity was the strange fluttery feeling he got in his stomach whenever he was around her. For Shiva's sake, she was a childhood crush, and here he was as if he had never grown up. Tifa's presence alone was enough to make him feel like he was back to the painfully shy little boy he used to be. He wondered bemusedly if anything actually had changed since then, because at the moment, it certainly felt like nothing had.
"Cloud?" The call of his name pulled him back into reality, and he became aware of Tifa looking at him inquisitively. He pulled out a small smile to acknowledge her, and received a demure grin in response. Ifrit, how he wanted to stop lying to her with his weak charade. She was making it harder and harder by the second.
"You live down here?" Cloud couldn't hide the incredulity in his voice, and mentally winced as he realized how offensive that sounded. They had left the bar, but when he offered to walk Tifa home, she only brushed him off, insisting that the walk wasn't too long.
Thankfully, Tifa just laughed, as though she was amused. "Hey, I thought you were the one insisting that being under the plate was completely normal," she teased.
"Yeah, but…" Cloud looked at her quizzically. "Someone like you should be living above the plate."
"Cloud, I'm not rich," Tifa said softly. "Heck, I'm still in college."
Really? That was news to him. "But what about this upcoming year?" he asked.
"I'm taking a gap year," she said. "I was going to do it before I got cast for the film, anyway."
"So you're still going for a degree?"
"Mmm." Tifa looked somewhat self-conscious as she started to tap her foot on the ground. "I'm majoring in business management. I want to run my own bar one day. I actually used to work here as a bartender for some time to help pay for tuition…oh, I'm sorry, I'm rambling." She laughed nervously.
Cloud smirked. "That's pretty fitting, that you used to be a bartender," he said, thinking of her role in the film. "But I think you'd make a great bar owner too. You were always really smart. And it's pretty impressive how you're still going to college, even though you're an actress."
Tifa smiled. "Thanks, Cloud. Well...I'm headed this way. The train station is in the other direction, right?"
"Yeah..." He was reluctant to turn around, but they were still standing outside Seventh Heaven. There was no reason for him to stay.
"Guess I'll…see you around…" Her voice was trailing as much as his own, Cloud realized. Another sudden strike of impulse had him reaching out and grabbing her arm before she could turn around completely. He mentally cursed himself. Impulse really seemed to be messing with him lately. Tifa looked at him expectantly as he tried to gather his scrambled thoughts into something cohesive.
"It's still early," he said slowly. "And…we haven't eaten yet. Would you maybe…like to have dinner somewhere?"
A wide smile spread on Tifa's face. "That sounds great! I was just gonna cook something for myself, but I haven't eaten out in a while, so that'll be nice. Do you have any place in mind? I know this great Wutaian place nearby…"
Cloud couldn't help smiling as Tifa continued to ramble. Maybe he was cheating himself by letting himself spend more time with her. He knew that the consequences would become greater in the long run, that he'd only hurt her and himself in the end. It was playing with fire.
But he couldn't deny that he was enjoying every second of it.
aleph-vody: Thank you so much! Well this update is pretty quick for me, I guess I was spurred by the support I got, so thank you for reviewing! :)
GloriousCreation: Thank you! I'm technically supposed to be studying right now but ahem. Anyways, yes, I'm excited to write more about Yuffie in the future, she's fun to write haha. And yeah, I like to think that Tifa, Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie are kind of like the gang in How I Met Your Mother, with how they always hang out at the bar!
Rumia35: Ah I hope that Cloud's reason wasn't too stupid haha. There will be some Aerith later, I promise! I'm trying to pace this story out in a reasonable way, and unfortunately I couldn't introduce her right away. I'm itching to get to that part myself, to be honest haha
Senhorita Caroline: I just love a good cliffhanger, don't you? ;) Nah, writers are just sadists like that, really haha. Thank you so much though, I'm glad you like the story so far!
sunflowerspot: Hehe that's one of my favorite things about this pairing, they're both so shy and it's excruciating but you know that the payoff will be worth it ;) Haha honestly it's getting quite hard for Cloud to stick to the mask. Think of this period as Crisis Core infantry Cloud; he kinda wants to hide but it's still pretty hard for him to do so. And thank you so much, I really appreciate how you've been here from the very beginning! I hope this quicker update makes up for how slow I was with the last one hehe
Stormblade343: Thank you so so much! Hope you like how quick this update was :)