Friends

Disclaimer: Nope, I don't own FF at all.

Tifa Lockheart looked at her alarm clock while she napped again in the bathtub.

Dammit she thought looking at the clock, midnight. It was already late, but she just wanted to relax on her days off from her bar, like Barrett told her. Cloud also told her to get some rest since she looked so stressed recently, so they decided to take over the bar for her for a while. She rested her head on the headrest of her tub again, feeling the warm water resting upon her skin. She sighed in relief, closing her eyes.

She thought a lot. She thought about her life at her new bar in Midgar, which made her bar extra famous. She now had everything she wanted except the one thing she wanted for a long time. Cloud. Cloud has been living with her for a while now in her big apartment and they have been living as friends the whole time. She was 23 years old and still utterly in love with her best friend. She tried loads of times they had tender moments, but she never had the courage to. She hated herself for that.

Her moment of though shatters suddenly by a doorbell. She immediately knew who it was. She got out of her tub and threw on her silk nightgown quickly followed by her bathrobe and slippers. She walked down the stairs and reached to the door and opened it.

"Sorry, left my keys home again." He explained. Tifa smiles and shook her head.

"I know. I noticed." She said throwing him the keys that were left in the counter. Cloud took off his coat and hung it up in the closet. Tifa sat on the loveseat to turn on the T.V. Cloud went to the kitchen to get a drink and sat down beside Tifa.

"Did you remember to kick Napoleon out before closing?" asked Tifa in concern.

"Barrett said he was taking care of that. He didn't close yet." Tifa responded with a small ah and turned her eyes back to the T.V. She felt this uncomfortable silence between her and Cloud and shifted a little. She wanted so bad to tell her what she had been thinking.

"Relax well today?" he asked.

"Yeah, slept and read a bit."

"Good, you needed it. It doesn't hurt you to take a few days off from that bar. Really takes a lot out of you. You should spend some time to yourself to think and stuff. Gather your feelings. It took me a long time for me to get over that when I left, now that I came back, I'm much better…and I think you need that." Tifa sighed in desperation. She didn't want Cloud to notice her expression, so she just turned away from him, tears glistening in her eyes. She felt Cloud put his hand on her shoulder and turned her.

"Tifa?" Cloud asked, perplexed at the tears that were now streaming his best friend's face. Tifa wiped her tears and spoke,

"I…I don't know...a part of me wants to tell you what's going on and another doesn't."

"What is it that you want to say Tifa, you know I'm always here for you." More tears were streaming Tifa's face. She couldn't take it anymore. She was gonna tell him what she felt.

"I…I…Oh Cloud…I've been in love with you ever since you existed in my heart…It just happened. I could never tell you because—"

He stopped her whispered plea with a kiss. His lips touched hers, lightly, softly, at first. And then his arms slid around her, on encircling her waist to draw her closer, the other slipping to her nape so his fingers could thread upward her hair.

Tifa couldn't believe what was going on. Her eyes were open wide in shock, but realized how she knew Cloud's eyes were closed and drowned into his kisses. A shudder worked through her body, from the soles of her feet all the way to the top of her head. She told herself to pull away, but she didn't listen. She kiss grew. It deepened, ripened, and heated. She found herself clinging to him, kissing him back, opening to his tongue and then tangling hers with it. He kissed her, and kissed her and kissed her some more, until her heart was racing and she couldn't catch her breath and didn't care. Her entire body was alive with wanting him.

But finally he lifted his head away.

Somehow she'd ended up reclining on the love seat, with him leaning over her. He was staring down at her when she opened her eyes, and the look in his mako blue eyes was the one she tried hard to read. Surprise, confusion and desire all mingled there, and she only understood the latter.

He started to sit up, avoiding her eyes.

A new sensation grew on Tifa. She wasn't afraid anymore. She wanted Cloud to herself. This was her only chance to really show him she loves him. She assumed he wants it too. She felt a strong lust for the man she had just kissed.

She gripped his shoulders stopping the retreat. "All right Cloud."

Facing her again, he frowned.

"You win," she said.

His frown deepened. "I win? What are you talking about Tifa?"

She let a bitter smile cross her lips. "You know I have feelings for you Cloud. You never told me your bit of this story…"

Cloud hesitated for a minute, tracing his eyes around her lips again.

"I…I do have feelings for you Tifa. I've wanted you ever since I met you. I've always wanted you. Why do you think I always tried hard to impress you? I do love you."

Tifa looked stunned at his answer and wanted him even more now. She started undoing his buttons.

"Tifa…are you sure about this? I don't want you to think I was trying to seduce you with that kiss…I got carried away."

Tifa kept unbuttoning his shirt, nothing that he didn't put his hands over her to stop her. She got the last button free, slid her hands over his chest, upward to his shoulders, and watched him close his eyes.

"It doesn't really matter anymore. I need you Cloud.." She said sliding her hands lower again, she raked her nails lightly over his nipples, and he sucked in a sharp breath.

"I want you." She pleased softly in his ear.

He opened his eyes slowly, staring down at her. His hands were—were they shaking a little?—moved to the sash of her bathrobe and tugged it free. Then he was lifting her gently, so he could slide the robe off her shoulders, down her arms. The white silky nightgown was thin. But the firelight warmed her. She watched his gaze focus on her breasts, and knew her nipples were hard and visible beneath the fabric. He wasn't moving, she reacted to the neckline and began undoing the tiny buttons herself. One by one, all the way. The linen fell open, just slightly, with every button she unfastened, revealing a ribbon of flesh down the center of her body.

She lay back again, waiting.

Almost hesitantly, his hands pushed the nightgown open, and the breath stuttered out of him when he did.

"Tifa," he whispered. And his hands smoothed a path over her shoulder, and down to her large breasts then belly…and then back again to her breasts, where they lingered.

She let her head fall backward. His palms on her were not enough, even when he squeezed, "Please, Cloud."

He drew his fingertips over her nipples then. Finally, Pressure, tugging, tender pinches. She opened her and trembled with every touch.

He drew back, sliding off the love seat so he knelt on the floor beside it, and then he finished unbuttoning the gown, pushing it open, exposing her hips and her thighs. Then he slid his hands over her abdomen, down her legs, as if compelled to touch every part of her. "You're more beautiful than I ever dreamed." He whispered. He stroked a hand over her center, hesitated there. Tifa moved her thighs apart, letting one leg drop to the floor. Cloud swore softly and left his fingers burrow between them, softly exploring, probing, just a little at a time, his movements slow. When one finger slid inside her, she whimpered, moaned, and that seemed to be what finally broke the dam of his restraint.

Bending over her, he captured a breast in his mouth, sucking the hard nipple between his teeth even while his fingers deepened in their invasion, sliding in and out, the pace faster than before. The fire inside her was alive, and he was building it higher. God, how she wanted. She had never wanted like this. She was moving her hips against his hand, silently begging for more. At last his mouth released her breast and moved down her bode. Lips and tongue and teeth making a fiery wet path over her belly and lower, then still lower. And then his fingers withdrew, and his hands spread her open, and he bent lower, pushing his face between. His tongue snaked out, a hot, slow lick. He spread her open even wider with his fingers, so his tongue could delve inside. One hand slid beneath her buttocks, to tip her up, and he plunged even deeper, devouring her from the inside out.

Tifa cried out, her hands pressuring to his head. Every sound she made seemed to drive his hunger, until his feeding became so frenzied that his teeth scraped over her clitoris with every lap of his tongue, and still he strove to lick more deeply, to taste more of her. It was as if he couldn't get enough.

She screamed aloud when she came, her entire body spasming, twitching, and that only served to make him keep lapping, sucking, biting her gently, until she was shaking so hard she thought she would break apart.

But this wasn't over.

He'd shed his jeans at some point, and now he gripped her shoulders, pulled her upright and around on the loveseat until her legs were on either side of him, where he knelt on the floor. His hands gripped her buttocks, and he pulled her forward, off the settee, and onto his rock-hard erection. So big, she felt him stretching her as he sank himself into her. She was still spasming from the orgasm, on the verge of begging for mercy.

But then he moved his hips, and she had no desire to be free. Only to take him, more of him, all of him. She clung to his shoulders, moving over him, and he caught a breast in his mouth again, using his teeth far more aggressively than this time than he had before. His hands on her backside squeezed, fingers pinching now and then as he pulled her down onto him, harder with every thrust.

She sucked in a sharp breath, going still with shock and sensation. He jerked her hips forward, driving his cock deeper; then he pulled back and drove in again and yet again. Harder, deeper, and it felt good. Then she was helping him invade her, possess her utterly, by rising up and driving herself down over him.

She was coming again, and she thought he was, too, but the sensations were overwhelming, blinding, deafening. As he drove to the very depths of her, she crushed her body against him, taking everything he gave her.

He held her there, her body wrapped around his, and slowly, he lay back on the floor, snuggling her with him, holding her so tenderly she felt almost cherished. As the echoes of passion ebbed, she rested her head against his chest and whispered, "I love you Cloud."