Disclaimer: Don't own FFVII in any shape or form.

A/N: This piece is a colaboration between my friend Altsoba and I for the CxA forums 100 Challenge.

Nightmare

It happened more frequently now.

Almost every time he closed his eyes he would be forced to live his worst nightmare. In his dream, she ran. Cloud would run with his heart drumrolling a frantic tattoo in his ears, the sweat pouring from his skin in rivers, his gasping breath like a hurricane swirling in to his lungs. She barely exerted herself.

She ran faster then he could ever hope to move his legs. She ran so fast she almost flew and, even within the confines of his dream, Cloud felt hopeless that he would ever reach his goal.

Always, he would dread this part. His energy would begin to flag, even in his sleeping physical self he would feel it go, while she seemed to gather everything that he lost only increasing the speed with which she ran.

Cloud looked down, trying in vain to will his legs to put out even a little bit more speed. His goal was within reach, a small meadow standing alone within the blackness that he propelled himself through. He could even see her now, Aerith, standing amidst the flowers that grew for her there.

It was only a few feet away from him, Cloud thought he could even smell the perfume coming from the meadow; hear the tinkling bells of Aerith's laughter as she glowed amongst the lilies, daisies and moonflowers. Anything would grow for the rose at the center of the meadow, at any time, including Cloud's heart.

Yet this was as far as he was ever allowed to get. Just before he could begin to feel the warmth of his love the blackness around him would condense before him, causing Cloud to trip just outside the first ring of flowers, missing the softness of the petals by mere inches. What was left of his gasping breath would puff in surprise from his lungs. The black would encircle and drag him away before he was ever able to regain his stolen breath to shout for his rose.

That was when the rumbling would start. He couldn't ever understand the words that were being said at first, but by now he knew them in his heart. Even when awake he could recite these words if any had asked him.

The rumbling would turn into a whine as he was pulled along by his foot growing in pitch and intensity as he neared the source.

Cloud had been through this so many times now that he didn't even try to struggle. The ending of this nightmare was always inevitable.

Having given up her chase, Tifa stood with her arms folded across her ample bosom. Her raven hair blended in with the darkness around her and Cloud supposed that the Tifa in his dreams had powers beyond the Tifa he knew and trusted in reality. It was her raven hair that made up the darkness he was surrounded in.

"Cloud, Cloudcloudoud. Cloud!" The Tifa that chased him while he was unconscious could only speak his name. She never had any reason as to why she was chasing him here, at least the real Tifa normally had an excuse as to why she was intruding into the moments that Cloud would steal alone with his rose.

These dreams had been happening ever since he had worked up the courage to tell Aerith his feelings for her, but now that he had it seemed like he could find no time to tell her. He knew that Tifa meant well, that she was just trying to be a friend. That if it wasn't Tifa, it was one of his other friends trying to keep him from what they thought was worry or depression.

Cloud sat up, groggily, rubbing the dreams from his eyes. The sun was just risen, tinting the sky red, Cloud suddenly thought of the old adage, "Red in the morning, sailors take warning" but he couldn't remember just where he had heard it from. He turned to look at his sleeping friends, his eyes lingering the longest on Aerith. The reddish glow in the sky giving her pale skin a pinkish blush and Cloud thought that it wouldn't matter if he was able to tell Aerith his feelings today, tomorrow, or even after they defeated Sephiroth he would be fine.

After the upcoming battle, Cloud thought to himself, he and his rose would have the rest of their lives to spend together and felt happy.