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“Hey Cloud…” Tifa starts. Cloud already feels dread pooling in his gut. Tifa’s using that tone. The tone she uses when she has a crazy idea. He turns to look at her. They’re at the bar, with Tifa sitting on the other side of the counter pouring drinks.
“...What.” He asks. He’s more demanding an answer than asking. She’s looking at him with sparks in her eyes. Yep, definitely another crazy idea.
“You have your ears pierced.” She states.
Cloud narrows his eyes and huffs.
“And what about it?”
“Have you ever thought about getting any other piercings? Because-”
“No.” He turns back to his drink.
“You’re no fun.” She stresses. The smile on her face is so devilish it nearly intimidates him.
“What other piercings would I even get ?” He asks. He’s never seen anyone with piercings other than their earlobes like he has.
“On your eyebrow, maybe some on the cartilage on your ear... Hmm…” She ponders for a moment.
“...Oh! Or maybe a nose piercing?”
Cloud does a double take. People get piercings on their nose? And eyebrows? And what the hell is cartilage?”
“Why do you ask.” He decides to leave his questions unanswered for now, although he can’t lie that the idea of getting another piercing or two is starting to spark his interest.
“I don’t know...” She sighs. “I just think you would look so cool!” She says, leaning forward on the counter for emphasis.
The more he thinks about it, the more appealing it becomes, somehow. A stud in his nose has the potential to look pretty sweet. Although, an eyebrow piercing would be covered by his hair. Maybe one on the top of his ear? Is that what Tifa meant by ‘cartilage’?
He thinks this over, before turning back to her.
“And where does one get these piercings.” He asks. Tifa gasps in surprise.
“You wanna get one? Really? Well, there’s this place in Wall Market that does piercings. What exactly were you thinking?”
Cloud sputters. He wasn’t expecting her to be so enthusiastic.
“Uh, I was thinking on the top of my ear and a stud for my nose.” He responds, flustered.
Tifa nods in excitement.
“We could go tomorrow morning, if you’d like?”
“I mean, sure. How much will this cost me,though?”
“I’d guess that two would be… 600 Gil?”
He hums his approval while taking a sip of his drink. This could be fun.
*
He meets Tifa at Wall Market the next day, loud jazz music greeting him when he walks through the entrance. He waits for Tifa at a blue bench, perking up when he sees her approaching him a couple minutes later.
“Okay! I’ll show you where the piercer is!” She’s more excited than he is, and he wonders why. She must really want to see him with a nose stud.
She takes him around a corner he hadn’t noticed before when he was last here with Aerith. He can’t figure how exactly he’d missed it, though. The sign is covered in intricate designs of flowers and animals. It reads: “Mike’s Tattoos and Piercings.”
“How do you know of this place?” He asks as they approach the doorstep.
“I got my tattoo here!” She explains, pulling the band of her skirt down, revealing a black skull design on her hip.
Cloud’s mouth drops.
“Since when do you have a tattoo ?!” He asks, dumbfounded.
She giggles.
“I got it a couple years back. Pretty cool, huh?”
Cloud shakes his head. But he can’t deny it does look pretty damn cool.
The man who greets them when they walk through the door has at least 10 rings on his ears, and tattoo sleeves running up his arms. Cloud wonders if he did them all himself.
“Hey Tifa. What y'all here for today?” He asks.
Tifa talks for him. “He wants to get his nose and cartilage pierced.” Mike looks Cloud up and down.
“Hm. Have you gotten anything done before?” He steps closer to look at his earlobes. He squints his eyes suddenly, realization washing over him.
“Hey, you’re the guy who fought at the colosseum! What a coincidence.” He huffs a laugh.
“So I take it you can take the pain of a needle.”
Cloud almost smiles at that. He nods.
Mike takes him to a room in the back, and wipes his ear with something cold and wet before he unwraps a plastic bag with a needle in it.
“Don’t worry, we don’t reuse the needles.” He states.
He marks a dot where Cloud says he wants the jewelry.
Mike laughs when the needle pierces the left side of his nose and he doesn’t even flinch.
“Damn. Most people would be crying right now.”
He grins at that.
“Is that so.”
The cartilage hurts, just a tiny bit, but he still doesn’t flinch. Mike holds a mirror up to his face.
He hums his approval. The nose stud looks pretty nice on his face, and the ring in his ear shines against the light in the room. Tifa gasps excitedly when he emerges from the room, quite literally jumping up and down.
“You look so cool!” She exclaims. Cloud still can’t figure out why she’s so happy for him. Although, he can see a blush spreading across her cheeks.
Huh.
*
Cloud is sitting at the bar early the next morning. The left side of his nose still has a dull throbbing pain residing. Barret enters the bar, throwing the door open.
“Hey Cloud, we need you for-” He stops in his tracks suddenly.
“Do you have a goddamn nose piercing ?” He takes a step to look closer at him. Cloud guesses he’s squinting behind those dark sunglasses.
“What are you, like, a punk or something now?” He continues with a laugh and a shake of his head.
“Shut up. Of course not.” and then softer- “Tifa convinced me to get it.”
“Did she now! Heh. Did it hurt?” he asks, and Cloud wonders why everyone is so invested in his piercings.
“No, but the one on my ear did.” He answers truthfully, running the pad of his finger along the ring. He rips his hand away abruptly, remembering that he’s not supposed to touch them.
*
The real pain comes later that day, and he’s lucky he’s not on a job today, because boy does it hurt. He lays down on the wrong side of his head, and the ring gets caught in a loose thread in the bedsheets. He curses up a storm before he untangles it from the jewelry. He runs to the sink and rinses his head under cold water, trying to soothe the pain. He feels bad for Tifa, she must’ve awoken by now with all his swearing.
“Fuck! Shit - Holy fuck ,” his suspicions are confirmed when he hears footsteps approaching his door. Tifa whips open the door before Cloud can tell her not to come in.
He’s bent over the sink, head under running water wearing nothing but boxer shorts.
They stare at each other for a moment, not daring to say anything. Nothing but the sound of the sink running.
“ Ahem. Are you… okay?” She asks finally, and he can tell she’s suppressing a smile.
This situation is so ridiculous, Cloud can’t tell if he wants to scream or laugh.
He turns off the water slowly, and stands up.
“The ring… got caught on something. Hurts like a bitch, uh…” He trails off, because he’s still nearly naked and Tifa is staring at him so hard he feels like she’ll burn holes into him with her eyes.
Tifa starts laughing, then doubles over in hysterics.
“Oh, and here I thought you were in trouble! ” She manages between laughs. Tears are running down her face.
“Hey. I don’t see what’s so funny.” He says, but he can feel himself grinning.
Tifa steps in, and Cloud immediately panics, because hello, he’s still wearing practically nothing.
“Lemme take a look at it.” She insists. Her fingers poke at his ear over the sink, trying to nudge the ring back without causing too much damage. It hurts, but something gets pushed back and suddenly the pressure is gone.
“Wow. you actually… thanks.” He says, surprised that she knew how to fix it. Maybe she knew more about this stuff than he thought. She giggles.
“Alright then, goodnight. Try not to sleep on that side again!” She says cheekily, as if that wasn’t obvious enough. He rolls his eyes playfully before shutting the door.
He sleeps, feeling content for the first time in months.