Mint

When Aerith realized it was Tifa, she, too, relaxed her guard. "Oh, Tifa...sorry, I was on my back to the room to put some of the stuff that I won at the Wonder Square away, but I dropped some Materia..."

Sure enough, Tifa turned her gaze downward to see a few pieces of shattered glass, swirling with elemental energy that was already beginning to fade away. Tifa put a palm to her head, sighing.

"Oh boy...here, let me clean this up before someone gets nicked and turns into ice or something."

Tifa withdrew into the Inn room, grabbing a pan and broom to sweep the mess away. Aerith stood awkwardly in the hallway, half-protecting passerby from stepping on the Materia, half-not knowing what to do with her hands.

"There," Tifa said, wiping her hands as the last of the debris was cleared. "All better. I'm gonna head back to bed now. G'night!"

Before she could step through into the room, Tifa felt a small, delicate hand grab her own. She turned to see Aerith looking up at her with sparkling eyes.

"Well that won't do after you helped me out! Come, come hang out with me!"

Tifa toyed with a strand of her hair. "Eh...I dunno..."

"Please? Cloud and Barret are off to do whatever bro-nonsense they occupy themselves with, Yuffie won't leave the Casino, Red stopped accepting my petting, and Vincent is...well he's Vincent! I'm on my own here!"

Aerith gave the girl the best pout she could. Tifa's face was scrunched in conflict, but she eventually had to acquiesce. How could you say no to a cute face like that?

"Fine, fine," she said. Aerith squealed in happiness as Tifa went back inside to put on a full outfit to join her.

"So...what is there to do here?" Tifa asked as she and her date stood in the Gold Saucer's Event Square. "Whenever we end up here I usually just use the time to catch up on sleep, so..."

"Oh, there's so much!" Aerith replied, eyes glittering in excitement. "Here, I'll take you to the best spots! Come on!" She grabbed the girl's hand and half-pulled, half-dragged her to the Terminal Floor.

"Okay, so first is the Chocobo Square! Let's go!" Aerith shoved Tifa through the tunnel that led to the feathered friends, catching the girl off guard — she sometimes forgot that Aerith's strength belied her demure stature.

The pair appeared on the other side, greeted by the strong earthy smell of chocobo feathers, even though they were housed in stables far past the stadium and reception area. Despite herself, the scent sent Tifa's memories tumbling back to Nibelheim for a brief moment. She shook her head, speaking to clear her thoughts.

"So...you watch the Chocobo Races here, then?" Tifa asked. Aerith shrugged her shoulders, hands behind her back as the pair climbed the steps to the stadium.

"Sometimes! Sometimes I race, too. But we aren't doing either of those today!"

Tifa's focus snapped to the girl. "Wait, you race at these things? Like, how often?"

Aerith gave a dismissive wave, preferring to not address the topic further. Tifa couldn't stop staring at the girl. Aerith was a continuous surprise on all fronts.

And that would only further prove to be the case as the pair made their way past the Stadium's front entrance, trailing around the main building and to the Chocobo Stables. Tifa glanced around nervously as Aerith swung the door to them open with a powerful shove. The warks of the chocobos increased in intensity as they stepped through.

"Uh...are we allowed to be here?" she asked. Aerith giggled.

"Yes, silly! All I had to do was bat my eyelashes at the stable-hand a little bit. Now I get to come in and pet the chocobos whenever I want!"

"Really? It was that easy?"

"Yep! Look!"

Tifa stopped examining the green chocobo in the stable in front of her to turn to Aerith. She gave a doe-like bat of her eyes, their emerald shine popping out even more than usual in the dusky light of the stables. A small, seductive smile was on her lips. Tifa gulped. Finally, Aerith broke the spell, throwing her head back with a laugh.

"See? Guys fall for this sort of thing so easily."

"I don't think just guys do..." Tifa muttered under her breath. Aerith turned back toward the girl.

"Did you say something, Tifa?" she asked.

"Uh, n-no! So, which chocobo here is your favorite?" she asked, hastily attempting to change the subject. Aerith clapped her hands in excitement, rushing over to a nearby crimson-colored chocobo.

"Here, here! Come pet him!" she shouted. Tifa sighed.

Crisis averted.

"Where to now?" Tifa asked, after petting the chocobos to Aerith's satisfaction. The girl held a finger to her chin in thought.

"Hmm...oh, how about the Battle Square? I don't go there very often."

Tifa snorted. "Really? I would have guessed you were moonlighting as the arena champion if you hadn't told me otherwise.

"Eh." Aerith shrugged her shoulders as she and Tifa walked through the tunnel that led to the Battle Square. "We already fight so much on the road, I didn't really want to do more of it on vacation, you know?"

"Fair. It's good to take a break now and again."

The duo found themselves in the Battle Square lobby. Though it was pretty late into the night by this point, there was still a large number of people roaming about, watching the monsters that were kept in see-through cages for spectators to look at in fear and awe. Aerith noticed a booth off to the corner of the area and skipped over to it, Tifa walking behind her while keeping a close watch on the people around them. She couldn't help it — one of their enemies could have been planning a sneak-attack at any moment.

Tifa's musings were interrupted by a gasp from Aerith. She turned to see the girl holding a giant cactaur plush.

"Oh my God, look at it Tifa! It's adorable!"

Tifa nodded in agreement. "How much is it?" Aerith looked up at the shopkeeper expectantly.

"For you miss? 100 BP," he said, stroking his mustache.

"BP?"

"Battle Points! You get them either by betting or participating in the Arena."

"Oh, dang it!" Aerith said, dejected. "We don't have any of those. Come on Tifa, let's go."

Tifa put a hand on her hip. "Now hang on a second. How much BP do you get in a fight?" she asked.

"About 1000 BP a match, all things considered," the shopkeeper replied. "But the beasties in there are pretty tough, miss."

Tifa snorted. "I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say that I've probably fought tougher. I'm down."

Aerith grabbed Tifa's hand, a small frown on her face. "You don't have to do that, Tifa. We just talked about enjoying our downtime!"

"You want the cactaur plush, right?"

"Well yeah, but—"

"Then you're getting the cactaur plush. Go find a good spot to watch. I'll see you after."

The Arena in the Battle Square was musky and dank. In all honesty, they really needed to open a window. Such was Tifa's first thought as she stood at the center of the ring — not that she could hear herself very well, with the crowd around her screaming in excitement. She wasn't used to so much focus being put on her.

Tifa looked at the floor. On it, "The Brave Do Not Fear the Grave" was written in blocky yellow text. She scoffed at the message.

"If you're not scared, you aren't brave — you're either not being challenged, or a total fool," she muttered under her breath. A horn billowed, signifying the entrance of the monster. The gates in front of her opened, and a giant troll with a club stomped out onto the ring in front of her. Tifa sized the thing up. It was a slow-moving beast. She smiled.

This was going to be even more of a breeze than she thought.

Another horn billowed. The start of the match. Tifa lightly hopped from foot to foot, punching her fist into an open palm. The troll was only able to take a step forward before she broke into a sprint. The beast was caught off guard and went in for a swing. Tifa let her weight drop down, her momentum carrying her into a slide under the troll's club. It whistled harmlessly over her hair as she moved through the troll's legs. Tifa leaped into the air as the monster attempted to understand what was happening, giving a few flips as she did so — may as well entertain the crowd a bit while she was here, after all. At the apex of her jump, she readied her fist. Gravity lent her a hand as she shot downwards. She pulled back, slamming her fist into the troll's face as she blew past it.

When Tifa landed on the ground, the troll was already collapsing behind her. She slammed a foot onto the monster's corpse, throwing her arm into a flex and grabbing her bicep in triumph. The crowd erupted into cheers.

"No, I'm good. I'll just take the Battle Points, please."

Tifa was waving off a Golden Saucer Sponsor when Aerith found her. Her moves during the fight had garnered quite a bit of interest. The suited man walked away, dejected, when Aerith hopped in front of her in excitement.

"Tifa, that was incredible! You're so strong!"

Tifa blushed, turning away from the girl.

"T-thanks."

"Do that thing again!"

"What thing?"

"The thing you did at the end of the fight!"

"Oh, you mean, like this?"

Tifa flexed her bicep again. Without warning, Aerith grabbed onto it, poking and squeezing at Tifa's large muscle. She flinched in surprise.

"Wha—"

"You know, I never really noticed before, but you're really buff, huh Tifa?" Aerith asked. It didn't really feel like a question.

"Yeah, I...I guess so," Tifa sputtered. For a flash of a second, she thought she saw Aerith bite her bottom lip, but the moment flashed by so quickly, Tifa couldn't be sure. She let go of Tifa's arm.

"Come on, let's go get the plush!" she said, rushing the pair over to the shop booth yet again. The shopkeeper was already holding out the cactaur plush for Aerith.

"I assume you've come for this, miss?"

"Yeah, but...that still leaves us with 900 points, now that I think about it..." Aerith and Tifa exchanged glances.

Tifa dropped the last of the giant stuffed animals they procured onto the desk next to her, before sighing and falling back onto her own bed.

"Where are we even going to put all this stuff?"

"Hmm...I dunno!" Aerith replied, dropping her own haul as well. Maybe we can send some of it back to Midgar. I bet Marlene would be pretty happy."

"True." Tifa adjusted so that she could stretch herself out on her bed in full.

"Well, that was fun, but I'm beat," she said. She felt the weight on her bed shift. Aerith had hopped onto the bed, having kicked her boots off. Tifa's heart rate suddenly sky-rocketed against her will.

"Scoot over, I'm tired too!" Aerith said. Tifa moved, trying to make word sounds come out of her mouth, but doing a terrible job. They lay like that for a while, staring up at the ceiling in silence, the only sounds Aerith's breath, and the blood pounding in Tifa's head. Ever so often, the flower-girl would kick her feet into the air, matching the motions of the fan above them. Finally, she spoke.

"Wanna know something?" she asked.

"What?"

"I heard what you said. In the stables."

Tifa shot up, looking down on the girl frantically. "You did?"

Aerith giggled, sitting up as well. "Yeah, but I didn't want to push it if you didn't want to talk about it."

Tifa stammered. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't—"

"—You don't have to apologize! You wanna know something else?"

"What?"

Aerith inched closer to Tifa. The hairs on the girl's arms stood on end.

"I like you too," she whispered.

"You do? Since...since when?"

"Hmm, I don't know...when did we meet?"

"At Corneo's."

"So, then!"

"What!?"

Aerith pouted. "Is it really that much of a surprise? You're a knock-out, Tifa — literally, sometimes! You're really nice, and smart, and have you seen your muscles? Because I have, and let me tell you, phew—"

"—Wait, wait," Tifa said, holding a hand up. "So we've been mutually crushing on each other this entire time? How long have you known that I like you? Did you figure it out at the Stables?"

Aerith interlocked her fingers. "No, I've known for a while."

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I wasn't sure if you were ready or not! I don't know if you noticed, but we're kind of in the middle of some stuff right now..."

Tifa's eyebrows furrowed. "Well, that's ridiculous. I'm definitely ready."

Aerith's eyes narrowed as she smiled. "Good. Then you won't mind if I do this, then?"

Aerith leaned over Tifa, letting her lips press against hers for a fraction of a second before pulling back. She looked at Tifa questioningly, waiting for her consent. Tifa nodded.

"I don't mind at all..." her cheeks were red, but for once, it wasn't out of embarrassment. Aerith moved to kiss the girl again, with more force this time. Tifa shut her eyes as their lips met, grabbing Aerith's waist to pull her closer. Feelings that had existed unrequited for so long were finally being realized as the pair fell backward onto Tifa's bed.

They lay together, blissfully, before Tifa's eyes shot open in realization.

"We have to get ready before Yuffie comes back," she said, starting to rise from the bed. Aerith grabbed the girl's arm before she could move further, a lazy smile on her face.

"First of all, she won't be back for a while. Second of all, she already knows."

Tifa covered her face with her hands. "Is there anyone that didn't know about us before me?"

Aerith looked upwards in thought.

"Hmm...Cloud, probably?"