Adult-FanFiction.org : Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy 7. Tifa Lockhart: Journey to Midgar.	By : Nickamano Category: Final Fantasy VII > General Views: 7306 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 is created and owned by Squaresoft, now Square-Enix. Nothing here is owned by me. It was created for entertainment purposes, and I am not profiting financially from the creation and online presentation of this story.

Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
14. Articles.
Again, there was nothing in the paper, no mention of SOLDIER or of Cloud. She never expected any mentions of Zangan but she kept an eye out all the same. Having finished all the back issues in the library, waiting for each fresh edition was all she could do now. However, she was satisfied that she had been able to track through just about all the newspapers over the previous three years. It wasn’t every newspaper of course, but the ‘Shin-Ra Express’ had the best chance of offering SOLDIER news, so she chose to focus on that title. At first, she had made notes of the few issues that had been missing but later found them, incorrectly arranged in the stacks. She checked each of them through and finding nothing, had put them back in their rightful places.

The rest of the day she had spent in the training room or in her cabin. She was still slightly disgruntled about the way Miki had not only been taken in by Tomo but the way, once she had become drunk, she had been dismissive and upset by Tifa’s attempt to help.

She understood it, Tomo was giving the girl attention, making her feel grown up with booze and open flirtation, but Tifa could imagine where that could lead and she was worried about Miki. Still, it wasn’t her place to force the girl to do what Tifa wanted, she had seen the same behaviour plenty of times with her friends back home.

The girl was essentially doing what teenagers did, experimenting, stepping into the grown-up world, making mistakes. She just hoped Miki would learn from them, and they would not be too painful for her.

She ate her evening meal in the dining room, a fish and vegetable dish that was subtly flavoured and delicious. She sat alone as always, and thought about the previous two weeks on the journey across the ocean. It had been different to the journey across her home continent. That had been essentially an exercise in survival, defending herself again wild animals, eating and sleeping out in the open, bathing in icy streams. There had been the trip in the little carriage convoy and the day in the Gold Saucer, but other than that it had been a very wild, elemental journey.

This leg of her trip on the ocean ferry had very much been a holiday and she had spent her time lying around and simply filling her time. All the cooking and cleaning was done for her, even her clothing. The only cleaning that she had to maintain was of herself. And even for that everything was provided. Hot running water. Scented soaps and shampoos and conditioners and body sprays and perfumes. It was a rich indulgence that had started as overwhelming, had grown to become a pleasure but then risked evolving into an obsession, and she found herself both missing and at the same time abhorring the simplicity of daily bathing in streams and rivers with a simple moisturising soap.

However, it was a strange feeling. This balance of positives and negatives. The sense of peace and relaxation was tempered by her inability to do what she liked when she liked, as she had got used to doing both in the cabin and walking though the wilderness. The rules of meal times and entertainments. The rules surrounding her training regime, not all of them self-inflicted, inhibited and stifled her ability to maintain her edge.

And also, the people milling around all the time, both staff and fellow passengers, were distracting and sometimes confusing. She had got used to her little personal bubble where she felt at home and used to her surroundings. The people of her village she had known well but most of her time had been spent with a mere handful of them. And then in the cabin she was alone or with Zangan. Here on the ferry there were people everywhere, noisy, distracting, discomforting, looking at her, watching her. They were all essentially strangers and it made her feel alone and alienated as well as constantly under scrutiny, both lustful and judgemental.

She realised that she liked quiet, she liked nature, natural surroundings and the freedom to live the life she wanted. She liked her own company.

At the same time, she had discovered a ‘home’, though not necessarily as a patron - the little bar opposite the restaurant and even more so, the little ‘Blenheim’ tearoom. They both felt like a little oasis inside the seeming anarchy of daily life on the ferry.

However, it wasn’t the jovial mood, the colourful personalities and the stories shared over boozy drinks in the bar, though she enjoyed all of those elements. It was really the bustle of the bartenders, the exotic drinks that were available, the give and take of staff and patrons, the ability to make people happy with things you had devised yourself. The creative elements.

In the tearoom, she quite liked the old-world ‘Kalm quaintness’, the feel of the place harkening back to a simpler time, to peaceful enjoyment and tasty food. And again, there was the friendly atmosphere, happy customers enjoying their purchases and the kind interplay between staff and patrons. There was just something about that world and the idea of trying out her own inventions. Her own mixed drinks, her own cocktails in the bar, her own recipes in the tearoom. Of her favourite customers coming in with a smile of welcome, good company, the locals. The familiar faces coming in every week or every day, that closeness and friendly intimacy. It was really the small mountain-village life, distilled into a bar or restaurant. She could feel the pleasure that those thoughts, those fantasies gave her and it slowly opened up a possible alternative to following Zangan around the world, training his students.

That would be a good life too, of course. That was the plan. That was what she intended to sell him on. However, maybe there was room for a backup plan. As her father had said, there was no sense in putting all her eggs in one basket.

She spent much of Thursday in the bar and the tearoom, often talking to the bar staff and the waiting staff and even, when they had breaks or ended their shift, some of the cooks in the tearoom kitchen and the restaurant. They happily chatted with her especially the men, though she had close friendships with a couple of the waitresses in the tearoom as well, Tina especially. And she spent a lot of her day discussing the ins and outs of their world. Tifa also talked to the cooks and the bar staff about cocktails and recipes and even managed to get a handful of her own ideas positively assessed (and probably filched, not that she minded).

The bar manager, happily sitting Tifa during his lunch break informed her that she would almost certainly have little problem getting work waiting tables, or tending bar, and that those in the business liked beautiful people. They liked to portray the environment to be a beautiful one, delicious food and drinks brought to you by beautiful young people. It was a visual feast, as much as a feast for the taste buds and that it presents a certain allure and entices customers to come in and spend money in the premises. He quickly embellished his statement, trying to cover the attempt at a pick up line, that he was as much talking about presentation of the dishes and drinks and the interior décor and layout as much as the waiting staff themselves. Tifa saw through his attempt of course but she still saw the logic in his words, and though he didn’t get the date he had been wanting, she did take away his veiled compliments in the form of the business model he had been using as metaphor.

Overall, she found the day enlightening, encouraging and opening a secondary possibility of a life choice, or at least career choice for her.

She skipped lunch and the evening meal, having spent too much time snacking on delicious treats in the tearoom and drinking cocktails, many of them non-alcoholic, in the bar. And took herself off to the training room in the early evening to burn off the calories and keep herself in top condition.
- 17
- 18
- 19
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Final Fantasy 7. Tifa Lockhart: Journey to Midgar.