Katy (leviathanmirror) wrote in forsakengardens, @ 2010-07-14 06:44:00 |
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Current mood: | sad |
Fiction Post #11
Collection of Springkink prompts.
Title: Well Welcome Friend
Author: leviathanmirror
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word count: 1178
Summary: Tifa has a late visitor at the Seventh Heaven.
Prompt: Final Fantasy VII, Tifa/Elena: breakup – You don't need him
The Seventh Heaven is officially open until the earliest hours of the morning but Tifa rarely closes it at exactly two. Stragglers are allowed to finish old drinks, newcomers served fresh ones. As long as no one is rowdy and the electric bill isn't getting too high, letting desperate people keep drinking doesn't hurt her. She doesn't have any reason to go to bed early these days anyway.
That's why she found herself going to lock up at 4:18 on a damp Thursday morning after helping the last customer - a young woman wearing too little clothing and too much make up to have intended to be drinking alone - out the dark stained door. She is thinking that she could be that woman as she begins turning the top lock, she could be a lost soul if she wasn't running a sanctuary for them.
There's a light thump against the door as she moves onto the second lock, a thump that turns into a sharp, quick knock and the faint strain of a high, feminine voice. Tifa can't make out the words but the entreating, frustrated tone is familiar. She glances at the corner table where her last patron had been seated all night, there's nothing on the table or the chair. Probably not the painted patron-memory then.
She wavers over the locks for a long moment, the knocking and voice on the other side, having become sharper while she inspected the table, are slackening. Tifa considers her empty bed, the barren side of the room that she's carefully avoided putting her belongings on, the bedside lamp that hasn't been turned on in weeks; the half-life that she is carefully maintaining even though she knows the blank spaces inside it will not be filled.
She opens the door.
"Elena?" she asks, addressing herself to the back of a carefully pressed blue suit.
"Tifa!" she had apparently surprised the other woman, but it gives way to typical Elena crankiness soon enough, "You could have opened the door before I started fantasizing about sleep; it would have been less disappointing."
She's used to Elena though, like she's used to Yuffie and Barret and Cid, and she just opens the door wider for her. Elena glances at her out of the corner of her eye as she passes. Tifa can't place the look but she's fairly certain she's seen it on Elena before.
"This is unusual," and she smiles when she speaks, part habit and part genuine happiness, "Just you tonight?"
"Yes," Elena responds, but the attempt at disdain in her voice fails.
"I was passing by and saw someone leaving."
Tifa nods, pleasant bartender's smile still on her face, "How have you been?"
"Fine. Busy," and the attempt at coolness falls away, "Worried about you. I talked to Yuffie last night, she said Cloud left for good. Are you okay?"
Elena always reminds Tifa of a scolded puppy. She'd try to pretend not to notice you at first, faking disinterest, but it never took long to give way to eagerness, whether it was affectionate or angry.
"I'm all right. How's your job?"
Elena wrinkles her nose at her and Tifa can't keep the smile from widening just a little.
"It's my job and that was a terrible attempt at changing the subject," is the tart response.
"Elena, I really don't want to talk about this. I appreciate your concern, and Yuffie's, but I'm just fine."
"All right, then," Elena looks like she's swallowed something particularly sour when she speaks and the look stays when she asks for a drink.
Tifa doesn't ask what she wants. Elena only ever drinks whiskey. It seemed odd at first but Tifa has warmed up to the idea of Elena not liking the flavor of alcohol to be covered by syrups or juices. A straightforward drink for a straightforward woman.
Elena doesn't reach for it immediately. She watches Tifa put the bottle away, watches her meticulously clean up. She waits until Tifa is looking up at her again and makes a show of putting enough money on the counter for two drinks.
"Elena--"
"Let it cover the electricity or something, okay?" Elena's expression has shifted into disappointment. Tifa thinks it's softer on Elena's delicate features, more suiting her doe-eyes and light lips. It's much harder on Tifa's heart. She takes the money, too tired to fight about it.
She usually allows the people close to her two free drinks a week (and she's only that strict because her friends are all drinkers). Reno, being Reno, wants free drinks all the time, and had once, during an after hours gathering, given her a hard time about it. Yuffie, always quick to criticize - especially Reno - responded with something that Tifa couldn't hear but whatever it was had made Cloud laugh; always such a soft, measured sound, like he was afraid of his own happiness. But he had been happy that night, and so had she.
She pours Elena another whiskey and tries not to think about never being that happy again.
"It looks like you're doing pretty well here," Elena is subdued when she breaks the silence, head bowed to look at her drink instead of Tifa.
"I am. The bar's been busy lately."
Elena nods, head still tilted downward.
The bar is already as clean as it will ever be but Tifa scrubs at the old stains anyway. She doesn't want to look at Elena, doesn't want to see the reflection of her own unhappiness in the other woman.
"You don't need him," Elena says, sudden and loud, "I didn't need Tseng and you don't need Cloud."
She covers Tifa's stilled hand, damp cloth still clutched between cold fingers, with her own.
"I don't want to talk about it, Elena," she says but she knows when she says it that she doesn't entirely mean it. Her protest is a sad, listless thing and she's too tired to give it anger she doesn't feel.
"You're not talking, you're listening. Besides, I've only got one piece of advice. I'm sure you can take it," Elena tells her, briefly tightening her grip on Tifa's hand.
"You need to stop thinking that Cloud and happiness are the same thing or it won't get better," Elena gives her hand another little squeeze and lets go.
The clacking sound of Elena's heels on the hardwood floor as she stands sound much too loud to Tifa.
"I need to get going, work in the morning and all," she gives Tifa a light, half-hug that she has a hard time returning, hands her a little slip of paper dug out of a pocket, and turns towards the door.
Once she's out the door, Tifa locks it. Then, heart racing and head feeling weightless, she returns to her bedroom - just hers now - and puts the little slip of paper, covered in numbers and places she can reach Elena if she needs to, on the nightstand that had been Cloud's.
And the first little piece of that overwhelming emptiness is filled.
Title: Little Gifts
Author/Artist: leviathanmirror
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Implied sex.
Word count: 549
Summary: It's a smile like sunshine and the feel of cool, slender fingers sliding across his warm skin.
Prompt: Final Fantasy VII, Vincent/Yuffie: seduction— Yuffie kept proving that she wasn’t as innocent as she looked.
It's a smile like sunshine and the feel of cool, slender fingers sliding across his warm skin; a careful thief's touch against his hip, somehow managing to bypass his belt and tucked-in-shirt without anyone noticing.
He doesn't flinch because he's been trained not to. He doesn't glare because she's slipping back into the crowd of the Seventh Heaven with a wink and he's finding a discreet way to cover the his lap with his cloak (the one that she takes so much glee in teasing him about).
He spends the rest of the night trying not to think about her hands until Cid asks him if he's had too much. The glazed, distant look in his eyes is decidely not alcohol, but it gives him a reason to escape to his room and a little privacy.
When she comes to his room, he pretends he wasn't hoping she would and she explains with her hands and her mouth and her warm, warm body that she knows he's lying.