Patron [Final Fantasy VII, Cloud/Tifa, M]
Title: Patron
Author: Valk
Rating: M
Warnings: AU, Sex, Alcohol use
Word Count: 3,400
Prompt: Final Fantasy VII, Cloud/Tifa: Drunken behavior - Tifa decides that the best way to get Cloud to loosen up is to get herself drunk and make him have his way with her.
A/N: The title is supposed to be puh-trown, as in the tequila, not pay-trun, as in one who pays for services.
Tifa Lockhart sat on a stool in her apartment, staring at her homework due in two days. Mr. Tuesti had an obscene taste in architecture take-home quizzes. It was her final semester and she needed to pass this quiz with flying colors if she wanted to keep up her four-point-oh GPA she’d had since freshman year.
She’d been distracted this semester because of… The door clicked open and her roommate walked in, dropping his backpack on the floor as he came in. Because of him. Her roommate last semester and his got engaged and decided to move in together. Tifa had a last-minute notice to find a new roommate and, turns out, so did he. They’d known each other because of Zack’s and Aerith’s relationship, so they finally decided to move in together for a lack of anyone else.
What Tifa failed to mention was her monstrous crush on Cloud. And now she lived with him, albeit in different rooms. The man didn’t seem to realize that he lived with a woman now. He came out for breakfast in his boxer shorts and an undershirt and made the trip from his bathroom to his bedroom in a towel after his showers.
He never showed any sign of returning her feelings, so she kept hers to herself and tried so hard not to show them around him. Walking over, he dropped down on the stool next to her and just stared at what she was doing.
She felt a small blush creep onto her cheeks but forced it back. “Find something you like?”
“Architecture?”
She nodded and said, “Professor Tuesti’s take-home quiz. Why?”
“No reason.” He slid off the stool and walk around the counter, pulling a glass bottle a shot glass out.
Tifa raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t your mother teach you to eat a healthy dinner?”
“Fuck dinner. After that midterm in Professor Highwind’s class, I’ll take the tequila.”
She shook her head and rested her elbow on the counter. “Don’t you have another midterm tomorrow?”
“No.”
“I thought you had class tomorrow?”
“The exam isn’t until the Friday class. I have three days to sober up.”
She glanced down at her exam and then at the bottle of tequila. She’d always been the good student, never going to parties or getting drunk, constantly focusing on her grades instead. Cloud had never been big on the party scene, either, but he wasn’t above drinking alone or with a small group of friends.
Her exam was due in two days, but maybe if she could loosen up with the liquor, maybe she’d be able to tell Cloud how she felt. She shoved her books back and said, “Get another glass.”
He raised a mildly questioning eyebrow before reaching in the cabinet and pulling another glass out. That was another thing she loved about Cloud. He never asked questions about anything. She found that a bit odd, since his own father had walked out when he was five for no apparent reason, but she wouldn’t blame him for it. He poured two glasses and held his shot glass up for a mild toast. She met him and called out, “To screwing midterms!”
The corner of his mouth quirked as he mimicked her. “To screwing midterms.”
They clinked their cheap shot glasses and drank the tequila straight. It burned down her throat and she slammed the glass down, choosing to laugh over cry at the pain. Cloud poured refills and nudged her glass closer again, silently challenging her to drink. She smiled at the gesture and gulped it down, once again fanning her mouth as it flamed down her throat.
Two or three shots later-she couldn’t remember-they found themselves sitting side-by side on the floor, leaning against the center counter. She was laughing and it felt nice to sit next to Cloud while he was in good spirits, both literally and figuratively.
He leaned back and asked, “Is it hot in here…?”
She nodded and leaned forward a little, flipping her shirt off over her head and throwing it to land in front of the refrigerator. “There! That’s better!”
He followed suit, playing along with her behavior. He was beginning to wonder how many shots she’d take before she’d had enough. She’d already downed five shots while he’d stopped at three. He felt a little tipsy, but she was flat-out drunk.
Her head dropped back against the counter and she gave him a drunken, yet flirty, smile. “Cloud…?”
He screwed the cap back on the bottle to keep her from getting any more and replied, “Yeah?”
She pushed herself to a mildly sitting position and, with that same grin in place, leaned closer to him to expose the tops of her breasts more. “I loves you… I super-duper love you…”
The buzz in his mind told him he imagined that, but, no, she was still in that same position, one bra strap falling dangerously down her shoulder. He swallowed the lump in his throat and blinked to try to keep his head. She was dangerously beautiful when she was in baggy pajamas and her hair in a ratty ponytail. But now she was sitting before him, half-naked and telling him she loved him. Granted, she was drunk, but he was borderline himself.
Before he knew what was happening, she was sitting across his lap and pressing her lips to his. His eyes widened at the feel of her lips on his and her breasts pressing against his chest. This… was not how he planned their first kiss, had he ever had the nerve to fess up. He’d wanted something more romantic… Dinner, maybe. Less alcohol, at the very least.
But, no, they were topless on their kitchen floor, their first kiss quickly turning into a make-out session. She settled down on his lap, seductively wiggling her hips to apply friction to his body through their pants. He fought down a groan and started gripping onto the first thing he could find, which happened to be her hips.
Her hands ran down over his chest as her loose hair fell over her shoulders in a silken curtain around her face. His hold on her hips tightened and he tried to push her away. She gave a small whimper and kept her lips sealed to his. He finally succeeded in pushing her back and shook his head. “Not like this, Tifa. If you really care about me, you’ll wait until you’re sober. If you don’t and that was just the tequila talking, then that’s that. But we can’t… Not like this.”
She mewled a sound of complaint and struggled to pull closer to him again. While keeping her at bay with one hand, he pulled himself to his feet and walked over to grab his shirt. She moved up behind him before he could get it on and pressed her breasts to his back. He froze and twisted to face her before picking her up bridal-style. She snuggled happily into his chest and looped her arms around him to hold him close, slowly reaching up to press soft kisses to his neck.
He walked over towards her room to put her to bed, but found the door latched and, with his hands full, he couldn’t get it open. Sighing in defeat, he turned and walked back to his room where the door was mostly closed, but not latched, and kicked it open. He moved over to the bed and set her drowsy form down. Still she refused to let go, so he sat down next to her, hoping his presence would be enough for her to zonk out.
Finally her eyes slid closed and her grip on his arm loosened. He reached down to the floor where all his bedding lay and pulled it up over her before sighing. Walking over to his closet for his sleeping bag, he headed out to the couch to get some sleep.
…
Cloud sat at the counter the next morning, still in his clothes from last night, eating a piece of toast with a glass of water. All of a sudden, his bedroom door flew open and Tifa ran out, racing into the bathroom and he sound of her vomiting came out. He cringed and sat up, getting the aspirin out and a glass of water for her.
Leaving the items on the counter, he walked over and sat on the couch to look away from her general direction since she was still shirtless. A little bit later, footsteps sounded and then rushed to her room for a moment before she came back out with a shirt on. She spied the water and aspirin on the counter and gulped it down before walking over to where Cloud sat with his toast.
She stopped in front of him and reached out, slapping him across the face with a red-hot blush. He touched the sore spot and glared up at her. “What the hell, Tifa?!”
She crossed her arms in front of her and seemed to be on the verge of tears as she said, “Care to explain why I woke up in your bed, hungover and half-naked?”
He forgot about this part. He swallowed a gulp of water before replying, “It’s not what you think. Take a look around. If you haven’t noticed, there’s a sleeping bag on the couch from where I spent the night.”
She paused and scanned the couch and, sure enough, the still messed-up sleeping bag was laid out there. Pressing a palm to her temples, she dropped down on the couch and asked, “What happened last night?”
“Nothing, really.” He shook his head. “We just hit the liquor and you were acting up, so I tried to get you to go to bed. I ended up having to carry you there and your door was shut, so I put you in my bed and slept out here.”
“Um, thanks for that. Sorry I hit you.”
“It’s okay.” He stood up and put his water glass in the sink before glancing up at the clock. “Hey, Tifa. You have class in twenty minutes.”
She glanced up at the clock to see it was already almost three o’clock in the afternoon. “Oh… crap. How did I sleep this late?”
“That’s what liquor will do to you when you’re not used to it.”
“Ohh…” She dropped back on the couch. “I still have my midterm to do and it’s due tomorrow.”
“Here.” Cloud walked over and held a group of papers towards her. “Professor Tuesti uses a pool of a hundred questions and randomly picks fifty, but maybe this will help. A friend of mine, Rufus, was in his classes and he photo-copied his answers before he turned them in. This should help with some of the questions, so long as you don’t copy his answers word-for-word. He got an ‘A,’ too, so most of them are right.”
She flipped through and glanced back up at him. “Why would you do this for me? You were pretty reluctant to even read me some practice quiz questions last week.”
He gave an uncomfortable shrug and replied, “I just… You getting drunk was my fault, so this is my way of trying to make it up.”
A smile came to her lips as she nodded. “Thank you, Cloud.”
“It wasn’t any trouble. Rufus owed me, anyway.”
“Still. Thanks.”
…
The following Saturday, midterms were done and everyone was eager to celebrate. Without their consent, Aerith turned Cloud’s and Tifa’s apartment into a party hotspot and bought drinks, decorations, and food to appease all of their friends. And their friends, and their friends, and anyone else who wound up getting invited.
As happy as Tifa was that exams were over, she wasn’t very excited about losing her personal space over Aerith’s antics. She sat side-by-side on the sofa with her roommate while the brunette and her fiancé ran around to put up last-minute decorations before their guests arrived.
Cloud pulled himself up and walked over to his bedroom, closing and locking the door. Tifa raised an eyebrow at him in question and he shrugged while explaining, “I don’t want some drunk couple to find their way to my room and go crazy.”
She nodded and agreed, “Good point.” Hopping over the back of the sofa, she ran to her room and locked it behind her.
Just after she did, a knock sounded on the door and Zack ran to it, calling, “Come on in!”
A group of his friends came in and headed straight for the booze as he made his way over to the stereo system and connected his mp3 player before turning on some dance music and blasting the volume.
Cloud and Tifa ended up mixing in, getting drinks and mingling amongst the constantly-growing crowds. A few hours in, the blond scanned the room for people he knew and spotted Tifa backed against the wall with Zack’s friend, Vincent Valentine, leaning over her. He felt a bubble of anger burst through him as he watched her make-out with a guy she barely knew after they’d almost had sex earlier that week. Sighing, he forced his rage down as he remembered he’d left out select details on that night. He’d wanted to, but he couldn’t bring himself to tell her that she’d pulled her shirt off and tried coaxing him into sex.
With another sigh, he pushed his way through the drunken college students-half of whom weren’t even old enough to legally drink-and made his way over to Tifa. He tapped both her and Vincent on the arm and they parted to look at him or, in Vincent’s case, down at him.
Tifa shot him a frown. “What? We’re kind of busy here.”
He addressed Vincent instead, “Could I borrow my roommate for a minute?”
The tall man nodded and Tifa sighed, whispering, “Be right back,” before following Cloud through the crowd.
He made his way over to his bedroom and unlocked the door before walking in and letting her in after him before shutting it behind him. Turning sharply, he grabbed her shoulders and pressed her to the wall, hissing under his breath, “What the hell are you doing?”
She blinked in shock and shoved his hands off her before replying, “What do you mean?”
“With Vincent.”
“It’s a little thing called making out. Vincent and I happen to have a lot in common. Since when are you my bodyguard? I know how to take care of myself.”
He sighed in defeat and released her. “I know. I know you can. That’s why…”
She raised an eyebrow. “Why what?”
He took a deep breath and glanced back up at her, whispering as low as he could to still be heard over the loud music, “Why I’m in love with you.”
She froze and her hand flew to her heart. Her mouth opened and closed as she fumbled for words, making her mildly resemble a fish. “Uh… I…”
He watched her for a brief moment before gathering his courage and leaning closer to her. His lips touched hers in a gentle kiss and her arms flew around his shoulders to bring him closer. He kept the kiss short to gauge her reaction before slowly pulling back and watching her.
A smile slid onto her lips as she abashedly looked away. “I never thought this day would ever come… I liked since I met you, but I didn’t think… I figured you didn’t feel the same. You never seemed to pay any attention to me.”
He ran his hand through her hair with a tiny upturn of his lips. “You didn’t exactly fess up, either.”
Her arms stayed over his shoulders as she whispered, “What made you?”
He snorted a quick laugh and leaned closer to nuzzle his nose against hers. “All you gotta do is make a guy jealous. It works wonders for unrequited love.”
“Cloud?”
“Hm?”
“I love you, too.”
He smiled and kissed her again, this time taking his time to taste her, truly taste her. Not the flavor of tequila that had been on her tongue that first night, but the taste of her. Granted, she had the faint taste of beer on her lips this time, but the alcohol wasn’t smothering like it was before.
He took a step closer to press her further against the wall, enjoying the feel of her lips under his. They bumped and grinded amidst their make-out, taking turns to explore each other’s mouth with their tongues. The passion between them quickly escalated as he wrapped a hand behind her thigh and lifted it up to rest on his hip, dipping his chin down to start pressing kisses to her neck.
Her fingers started to wander down his chest, leaving a gentle tingle in their wake. They wrapped around the hem of his baggy t-shirt and shoved it up. He pulled away from her so she could get it over his head and threw it before bending down to start kissing his shoulder and collarbone.
His hands grabbed hold of her thighs and he held her against him, walking backwards towards the bed and dropping down onto his back. She knelt above him, looking down at him with a gentle smile before sitting up straight and pulling her own shirt off and throwing it.
Unhooking and removing her bra, he rolled over to put her on the bottom and didn’t waste any time in leaning down to lap at her left nipple. A moan of pleasure slipped out of her lips as her fingers found anchor on his biceps and she raised her hips to bring his attention back to the matter at hand. He got the hint and reached a hand down to free the buckle on her jeans before shoving them down.
Her hands found his chin and moved his lips back to hers before moving to work on his pants and shoving both them and his boxers down. He slipped one hand inside her panties and tugged them down, tossing them aside and dipping his fingers into her moist heat. Her hips rose back into him as he started twisting his fingers inside her, bringing her closer and closer to orgasm.
She came with a scream that was lost in the noise outside the room. While she caught her breath through the aftershocks, Cloud kissed her gently before crawling up his bed and pulling the covers down to make room for them to get in.
He climbed in and reached out to pull Tifa up next to him before flipping the covers back over them. She drew their lips back together as he situated himself above her. In a few quick thrusts, he settled deep inside her and gave a groan of pleasure.
Their breaths mingled together as they blended into one, hips rolling and thrusting to feed one another’s every desire. Panting and moans filled the air and, soon enough, they came together as their love making reached a beautiful high.
…
Aerith wandered through the apartment the next morning, stepping around passed-out bodies and empty bottles of various liquors. She pursed her lips when she quickly realized Cloud and Tifa weren’t counted among them. She wandered over to Tifa’s room first and knocked on the door, receiving silence in return. Figuring she was still asleep, she went across the kitchen to Cloud’s room and knocked there.
She heard a low sound that she couldn’t quite decipher and took it to mean ‘come in.’ Turning the knob, she pushed the door open and froze as she took in the sight.
There, in Cloud’s bed, he lay with Aerith’s roommate of three and a half years, making out while the both of them were clearly stripped down.
She raised her eyebrows at the unexpected turn of the night, smirking as a devilish thought crossed her mind. As quietly as she could, she pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and pointed it towards them for future blackmail. Snapping a picture, she started to back out when Cloud’s voice sounded, his mouth still very near to Tifa’s, “Aerith, delete that picture or I’ll destroy your phone.”