bartending

[antishinra]

Hair swept back in a loose ponytail, Tifa's humming to herself as she sets up behind the bar. On the specials board she writes Half off anything blue!, and she's around early enough that under the half-off notice she doodles some decent stick-figure renditions of her ragtag circle of friends standing at a bar

Comments

[cloakandclaw]

He's already sitting at the farthest corner of the bar by the time Tifa gets there; he watches with what on any other day would be a great deal of amusement as she draws the stick figures. Today, however, he's even lower than usual on humor.

If she doesn't notice him hidden away in the shadows, then... that's all right. He isn't even sure what, if anything, he'll be able to say to her.

[antishinra]

It's not too long before she notices the familiar figure in the corner. Even though she'd been busying herself front and center, a good look down the length of the bar was inevitable.

She wonders if he was there all along or if he showed up while she was busy drawing her stick-figure masterpiece and had her back turned.

Either way, she's a little bit disappointed that he hasn't already said something to her. He had to have noticed her.

With a rag in her hand and a tiny smile on her lips, she steps closer. "Need a refill, stranger?"

[cloakandclaw]

"Tifa." He can't quite bring himself to meet her eyes: he's not sure if what happened yesterday is real or if he's out of his mind and he was awake all night analyzing it, trying to figure it out, and... failed.

Again.

Now his eyes flick up to hers but only for a moment before his gaze settles back onto the armor gracing his left hand. Slowly -- as if it exposes him to the very core to do it -- he peels back the clasps and fasteners that hold each piece in place and sets them down on the bar, one finger's worth at a time, forming a small semicircle of a fortress with them. Unencumbered, he flexes that still-gloved hand before making a tight fist: it's something he can't do while wearing the armor.

"A refill?" He looks down into the empty wine glass now surrounded for the time being by an army of metal and nods. "Something blue and strong, perhaps."

[antishinra]

It gives her pause -- just a little -- when he starts taking the armor off his hand. They pretty much lived on the road together for six months, so it's not that she's never seen him do it before. But it is kind of a rare thing.

On top of that, he hardly looks at her at all.

She thinks she knows him well enough by now to know there's an air of quiet moodiness around him tonight. Whether it's actually just a mood or not remains to be seen, but she tends to think that if something happened he'll tell her eventually. Even if it has to be coaxed out of him.

"You've got it."

She's surprised he wants something blue and strong at all, but she sets to work, expertly mixing gin, tequila, vodka, and rum -- he did say strong -- before she even gets to the blue part, and the whole time she keeps one eye on him.

When everything's been shaken together and poured into a tall glass, she plops a cherry into the blue mixture and slides it in front of him, curious about what's up and about his reaction to the drink. "How've you been the last

[dontloselight]

From one moment to the next, Tifa will find a Cloud at the bar, glancing at the board - at the little doodles, specifically - arms crossed.

He may not be her Cloud, but he still looks a whole lot like him.

Also - he has no idea what blue drinks are available.

[antishinra]

She glances up in time to see Cloud eyeing the board, and she almost laughs in spite of herself.

With the Cloud back home, she definitely would. And she can't help letting her own eyes move to the drawings. For a stick figure, Cloud's hair is a pretty accurate representation of the real thing.

She gives him an even warmer smile than she'd give most people. He looks almost the same and sounds almost the same, and seeing him definitely makes her miss the one she can't get back to.

"Hi, Cloud." It's been a while since she's seen him. "Can I get you anything?"

[dontloselight]

It has been a while since they last spoke, and even though Cloud has been in the bar a little more often than usual, he's more or less kept to himself.

"Hello Tifa," he returns, nodding as he looks away from the drawings. "Just water." He pauses before adding, "I didn't know you tended the bar."

[antishinra]

There's an ice-cold pitcher of water behind the bar, and she grins slightly as she pours some into a glass for him.

"It's a pretty new development. This is my first month on the job." She puts the glass down in front of him, bravely ignoring how strange it feels to look him in the eye and talk to him about places she's been with a person who could practically be his identical twin. "I used to have my own bar in Midgar, so I thought it was a good opportunity for me here."

[mogget_cat]

There is an albino young man carrying a very young child in his arms, watching the drawing of the stick figures.

Moira has been fighting sleep, yawning fiercely against Yrael's shoulder, so Yrael has been walking her around the bar in an attempt to calm her.

His chuckling at the sight of the stick figures isn't helping, however.

[antishinra]

Hearing the chuckling, she looks over, and when she sees him -- with a child in his arms, no less -- she has to smile.

"Yrael," she greets him, making a point to keep her voice lower than usual. "Are you laughing at my art?"

[mogget_cat]

"At Cloud's hair," he clarifies with a green-eyed grin.

Because who else has that hair and that expression?

He hadn't mentioned that he knew Cloud, had he?

[antishinra]

At first she opens her mouth to laugh in appreciation, but then it really clicks.

"You know Cloud, too?"

She almost goes a step further and says the Cloud from Hollow Bastion, but of course that's who he'd know.

She grins a little. She must've gotten Cloud down pretty well if he's that recognizable. Next time she's able to go home, she's going to try to duplicate the drawing for her Cloud. It'll make him smile.