Missing moment that's probably done a million times before, but meh. I was in the mood.
Soundtrack: Astronomical – Svrcina
Snow Globe
It's a selfish urge. Tomorrow the world might end. Meteor is ugly and bright in the sky above them, never quite out of sight, yet in this moment she doesn't want to look up. Doesn't even want to think about saving the planet. She only looks at him, retracing with her gaze the features she memorised long ago: spiky blond hair, blue eyes that glow faintly with mako. He is real. He is here. For once, they're even alone.
She wants the world to freeze so this moment will keep on existing, endless like a scene enclosed in a snow globe.
"Cloud," she says softly.
He twists more to look at her. Their shoulders are touching, though everything in her blood whispers to move closer. This time she doesn't fight the desire. All the tangled paths his mind got lost in—all those fragments of Zack and Jenova's poisonous taint—have all been smoothed away. She doesn't need to be afraid anymore: not of him, not of her feelings. This moment is theirs.
Tifa brushes her fingers against his cheek. "Do you know why I really stayed?"
His brow furrows. She had told him on the Highwind it was because she had nowhere else to go, but that was only a half-truth.
"Because I wanted to stay with you," she admits.
"With me?"
"Yes." Her heart quickens, bit by bit getting exposed to him, and she has to swallow to find the courage to get the rest of her words out. "Meteor is coming. We don't even know if we can stop Sephiroth." She brings her other hand up to clasp his face. "I didn't want to waste this time. I still don't want to waste this time. Not when it could be our last."
"Tifa." Her name sounds strained on his lips and he grips her wrists, not quite encouraging yet also not restraining. There is conflict in his eyes.
"I don't want to have regrets," she murmurs. "Not about this."
He holds her gaze for a long moment. Then he simply leans in to close the distance between them. Their lips touch—a feather-light caress—yet it is all it takes to shift the balance of their relationship. Not just friends anymore. It feels like she's waited a lifetime.
Tifa slips her fingers into his hair and pulls him closer. His hands move to her waist, half lifting her onto his lap. Their lips slant across each other, parting and tasting, and never quite getting enough. Nothing innocent about this kiss. They are not children. Her body yearns for him. Blood becomes fire and then it is just heat and heart pounding and a desperate need to be closer, closer, closer.
She knows that tomorrow the world might end, but in this moment she is not afraid. This moment is theirs. It will always be theirs.
I may end up adding to this and turning it into a collection of unrelated one-shots, but for now you can consider this complete.