(Author's Note: This was just for fun. And for all those interested - yes, ultralight planes are that unstable. All feedback welcome! Please feel free to comment and enjoy!)
Blankets and Bedclothes
Tifa pulled the three quilts over her head in bed and shivered with cold, teeth chattering. She curled up into a ball under the heavy quilts, burying her chin in the collar of the flannel pajamas she wore, that bore a cutesy chocobo pattern. "Dammit, dammit it's freaking cold," she muttered. She frowned when her words produced a puff of condensed air in front of her face - under the supposedly "thermal" quilts.
The Seventh Heaven Inn was closed, as was most of the the other twenty-two city blocks around them. Some idiot broke city regulation and managed to crash his personally designed and custom-made ultralight airplane into a local substation. Repairs would take two days. Until then, twenty-two blocks of the city were out of power in the coldest week of winter.
The kids had been sent away with Barret, since the school was also closed, but Cloud and Tifa were not so lucky. Lots of people had left their homes abandoned to escape the chill bite of winter, and as a result, the rate of break-ins had skyrocketed. They couldn't leave the Inn, not when they had everything invested in it.
But dammit, it was cold!
Tifa wiggled her toes, nearly immobile because of the three pairs of wooly socks she had on. Nope - totally numb.
Tifa curled into an even tighter ball. Cloud was in the other room, huddled in his own bed and they were both nursing a fire materia in their hands. The natural warmth the materia cast wasn't enough to keep them entirely warm, much less the entire Inn, but at least she could still feel her fingers.
Closing her eyes against the tingling agony of cold numbness creeping up her legs, Tifa concentrated on warm beaches. She wiggled her toes and tried to recall the sensation of warm sand between her toes.
Ah, that had been a great vacation when she and Cloud retired to Costa Del Sol for a few weeks after that whole Remnant ordeal. She'd gained a golden tan and Cloud had turned bronze and the nights together were oh so sweet. Cloud had brought her two pearls he'd dived for, prying them out of clams with the knife she'd gotten him as a gift. She had one set into a delicate gold setting and kept the other in her jewelry box. Something had changed in Cloud that trip; he'd become quicker to smile, easier to laugh, and seemed more... interested in everything in general and her in particular.
It had been one of the best times of her life. It still made her smile recalling it. She remembered them lying together at night night, not doing anything but snuggling, enjoying the sweet tropic breeze coming in from the ocean, the only coolness in that hot clime.
Why, Tifa thought savagely, am I in bed alone?
The sheets went flying off of her as Tifa thrust them aside. Gathering up the heaviest quilt on her bed she shuffled over to the door, flung that open as well. Her teeth were chattering. It had been a little warm under all those quilts, but not by much. Opening the door to Cloud's room, she hunched her shoulders instinctively against the howl of wind beyond the windows.
Tifa stopped in the doorway and stared, puzzled. Where did Cloud go?
The pile of quilts on the bed stirred and Cloud's pale face peeked over the covers at her. "You okay?" he said, voice muffled.
"Move over," Tifa ordered, shuffling around the bed. She accidentally stubbed her toes on the one of the bed legs, but didn't feel it. Her feet were like blocks of ice, for all she could feel in them.
Tifa arranged her quilt over the three already spread out on the bed then snuck under the covers while Cloud moved over for her. They both pulled the covers over their heads and lay down facing each other, arms tucked around their chests for warmth. Tifa took out the fire materia from her pocket and laid it on the bed between them. Cloud parted his folded arms a little so that his own fire materia spilled out from between them and gently rolled next to Tifa's.
There was a long silence as they stared at the glowing materia, willing their heat to build up under the blankets faster. Tifa didn't really mind the silence. Cloud was a quiet person. His actions spoke far louder than his words and she enjoyed just sharing the silence with him sometimes. There was no need to strike up conversation, no intuitive itch to say something, anything.
Surprisingly, it was Cloud himself that broke the silence. "Damn cold," he said.
"I know." Weren't her teeth chattering as much as his? She tentatively poked around with her toes until she found Cloud's feet and entangled hers with his.
An expression of horror crossed her face.
"You're not wearing any socks!"
"N-no," Cloud stuttered between gritted teeth. "Don't have any w-without any h-holes."
"I'm wearing three pair, take one at least." Drawing her legs up to her chest, she blindly removed a pair of heavy woolen socks and thrust them into his hands. Hands shaking, he put them on in the same way she removed them, by blindly sliding it onto his feet.
"Better?" Tifa asked. She couldn't help but notice that the mako glow of his eyes was unusually weak.
He closed his eyes and nodded. "Much."
"It's too cold for beating around the bush," she said. Ignoring his amused smile, she scooched over to him, pried his arms open, and snuggled up to his chest. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply of his spicy, crisp scent as he folded his arms around her. She sighed happily, felt the flush of warm air from her breath seeping into his thick sweatshirt.
"That felt good." Cloud rubbed her shoulders and back and the friction warmed her up a little.
"You're that cold?"
He nodded. "Yeah."
Tifa frowned. Typical man. Freezing to death and too proud to say or do anything about it. Well, that would go far on her watch. For several minutes, Tifa rubbed his arms and back and all of him that she could reach from her position, breathing into his chest and rubbing there nonstop until she finally saw a flush of color in his cheeks. She could see it was doing him some good and the exertion warmed her up as well. "Feel better?" she asked again, eagerly peering into his face by the green materia glow. The mako glow in his eyes was much stronger now and she relaxed a little.
"Definitely." He kissed her forehead. His lips were cold.
"Not enough," Tifa said and, adjusting her position a little, kissed him. He was so cold. She deepened the next kiss, savoring it. Cloud wasn't as responsive as he usually was, and she pressed him for more until he finally began to return her seductive kiss. For a long time they did nothing but trade kisses, wholly lost in each other.
Finally, Tifa broke away. Beneath her hands, she could feel Cloud's heart beating fast, not quite racing, but not the usual slow, steady rhythm either. Touching the tip of her nose to his, Tifa murmured, "It's gotten warm in here hasn't it?"
Cloud blinked at her then chuckled, just realizing how toasty it had gotten under the quilts. "How do you do that?"
"There's more than one way to get the blood moving," she said mysteriously.
He cocked an eyebrow at that. "Oh, really? What other ways are there, I wonder?"
Tifa grinned and kissed him slowly. "Well, I can show you... later."
He merely smirked at her and gently tucked a stray strand of hair away from her face. Tifa smiled, kissed him on the cheek, then squirmed a bit and he loosened his embrace. She rolled over on her other side, facing away from him. "My back is cold," she offered by way of explanation. Cloud said nothing as she wiggled her back up to him and drew his arms around her. Cloud snuggled up to her as well, nuzzling his face into her neck so that she felt his warm breath on her skin as he breathed. Tifa grinned when he kissed her neck. She loved him madly when he did simple things like that, small things that expressed volumes of what he felt. It was the way he did things, opting action over words, and she loved it.
For a long while she was content to stay there like that, enjoying the warmth for the first time that day. Eventually, she spoke. "You remember that vacation we took in Costa Del Sol?"
She felt him chuckle, the sound reverberating through her back and tingling in her toes - which she could feel again because they had thawed out, at long last.
"How could I forget?" he said. "Remember that one time a crab grabbed my trunks?"
Tifa laughed. "The lifeguard wanted to kick you off the beach because you were chest-deep in water and shaking your swim trunks in the air like mad trying to get the crab off. What was the reason he said again? Indecent exposure in public?"
"I don't like crabs," he said. "You just sat there, laughing."
"Well, I was enjoying the view," she said, with an unrepentant chuckle.
"Yeah, I'll bet! That's the gratitude I get for saving you from cockroaches." He sighed happily. "That was a great vacation." A pause. He idly traced random patterns on the her hip; he'd slid his hand under her shirt for this caress that she loved so much.
Then, "What brought that up?"
She shrugged, and unbuttoned the front of the chocobo-adorned flannel shirt a little. It was getting nice and toasty in here. "Oh, I was lying in bed and tried to think of something warm and the first thing that came to mind was that trip. We should go back sometime."
"Agreed. Let's do it. When should we leave?"
Tifa grinned. "How does tomorrow sound?"
"Excellent. I'll get the plane tickets." He nuzzled her jaw. "You pack that bikini you wore last time."
That made her eyes widen and she burst out laughing. "Cloud, you always surprise me when you say things like that."
"I'm making up for lost time. And besides..." He sobered suddenly and she could almost feel the smile fading from his face. "I made a promise to a friend."
Tifa twisted around in his grasp to face him once again. His eyes were averted, looking at something troubling and deep within. She lightly touched his face, drawing his eyes back to hers. "You always keep your promises, Cloud."
He smiled at her then, a true, rare Cloud smile of happiness. She smiled back. Cloud's eyes flashed in that way she knew so well and her breath caught in her throat. He kissed her lips lightly.
"I remember..." he began. He kissed her again. "That first night..." Kiss. "You came into..." Kiss. "My room."
A tingling warmth went down her spine and she arched her back slightly as he kissed her and spoke of that first night together. "Do you remember?" he murmured, his lips barely brushing against hers.
She couldn't speak. He had a way of taking her breath away and scattering her wits to the winds with a simple touch. The best she could manage was a soft moan against his lips, begging for more, as her hand twined through his hair. Cloud just smirked and one hand went to her slightly unbuttoned shirt, touching warm skin. He finally gave her the deep, long kiss she wanted at the same time as his fingers delicately traced the long, smooth scar on her chest that Sephiroth had left there, so many years ago. Such a caress was a privelege he knew was allowed only to him. The last person that had tried to touch her scar was some lifeguard stud that'd been hitting on her at the beach and finally got too handsy. He'd ended up in the hospital with a broken arm and wasn't likely to father any children in the near future.
Cloud slowly unbuttoned more of her shirt.
Their moment together was rudely interrupted when they heard breaking glass from downstairs. They both immediately sat up and Tifa found herself hurriedly buttoning up the shirt again. The bone-numbing cold stole her breath away. She could feel the heat from the exposed quilts rising past her and dissipating into the frigid air.
"Looters," Cloud said. Looters had been a problem since the blackout and it only figured that one of them would get drunk enough or be stupid enough or both to try and rob the famous Seventh Heaven.
Tifa sighed. "I'll take care of them."
"No." He grabbed her wrist as she was about to toss the covers back. "I'll take care of them."
She wrenched her hand from his grasp. "You put a hand on a sword hilt and you won't get your skin back, Strife. Look!" And she pointed to the large main blade that was leaning in the corner. Indeed, there was a light rime of frost on the hilt. "I don't need a weapon. I'll take care of them. You stay here and keep the sheets warm."
Cloud quirked an eyebrow at that and she flushed, suddenly realizing how that sounded. "I mean... not like that... Oh shut up."
She flung back the covers and was shuffling out the door as Cloud chuckled and dutifully burrowed into the bed once again. Tifa grumbled curses under her breath. She wanted to pummel the ones responsible for breaking up their moment together, just when things had gotten really interesting. Rubbing her arms to fend off that energy-sapping cold, Tifa leapt down the stairs and startled a pair of looters who were trying to break open the rest of the glass door. Oh yeah, they had to be drunk if they didn't realize that half the door was already broken.
They both stared at her stupidly, jaws slack and hanging in dumbfounded amazement. Fury pumped its fiery rage into her, making her blood boil. They continued to stare as she strode over to them in her bunny slippers. Grabbing one by the throat, she dragged him into the bar.
A second later, he went flying out of the bar, nailing his partner in the process. They both collapsed to the ground and red blood from a broken nose dripped across the stark white snow. They helped each other up and ran down the street erratically while Tifa shouted threats loud enough to be heard blocks away, and kept it up until they disappeared around a corner.
Grumbling invective under her breath, Tifa jerked the metal storm shutters shut - which had been hopelessly jammed for a week but strength in anger doesn't worry over little things - then locked them, turned on heel and stomped up the stairs. She ran back to the bedroom, eager to slide back into that toasty envelope of warmth with Cloud. Before she slipped under the sheets, she grabbed his cell phone from the side table and quickly ducked under the covers.
There, Cloud enfolded her in his arms and she sighed in sheer pleasure. Nothing could top the pleasure of coming to a warm bed with a boyfriend that willingly draped himself over his icecube of a girlfriend.
Well almost, she amended that thought. There was one thing that could top it, but this was the best thing ever with her clothes still on.
"You know some pretty good curses." Cloud rubbed life and feeling back into her limbs, his fingers lingering on her skin just enough to almost distract her from her task. She firmly ignored his teasing caress, making him chuckle.
"Well, tending a bar puts you in a perfect position to hear a lot of new stuff everyday," she said as she dialed a number on his phone. She was put through to their insurance company and it was only a quick fifteen-minute talk until she was informed that a repair crew would be over to replace the door in an hour. Tifa flipped the phone shut and grinned at Cloud when she told him this news.
"How do you do that? Get around the system so quickly?
"I don't do anything. Fame has its perks."
Cloud smirked the way he always does and hugged her close again. "How long until they get here?"
"About an hour."
"Good. Time enough then."
"Time for wha-" But she happily lost that train of thought as he kissed her.
"For some very badly-needed cozying," he said.
She giggled. "It's called cuddling."
"Cuddling isn't a word a guy can say."
"Oh, is that so?"
"It's a guy thing."
For nearly an hour, they enjoyed the cozy warmth beneath the blankets, sometimes talking a little but mostly just cuddling, half-asleep in each other's arms. Though they were sorely tempted to sink back into the amorous scenario that had been interrupted earlier, they decided against it. It wouldn't do to be caught in such a compromising situation should more looters come by. They made up for it in cuddling and some lingering kisses, a small advancement of pleasures to come later, when there was more time, more wine, and more central heating.
When a loud knocking on a metal shutter broke their solace, they both sighed.
"Your turn," Tifa said. Grumbling, Cloud slipped out from under the covers and hurried downstairs to let the repairmen in.
Smiling, Tifa closed her eyes and kept the sheets warm.