"It won't be long now."
It was midnight, not that it made a difference anymore. From the eyes of the speaker, it may as well have been high noon on the brightest, warmest midsummer's day. The hill where he had laid a blanket and his overlarge sword to rest was illuminated in a glimmering gold shine, an eerie copy of the celestial body that wandered the skies during the day. It was a mockery. It was a permanent and constant reminder of the failure of the man alone on this hill; he and his oversized sword. The deceptive ball of fire in the sky at this late hour could be seen from most of Gaia now as it finally began the entry into the atmosphere, tingeing the whole sky a shade of glorious gold which sparkled and shimmered in clusters as parts of the calamity broke off, sparkling in spirals as though ghostly arms, reaching to engulf the world below. The horizon in all directions was a deep and rich gold, as would be found in the vaults of the richest of the Shin-Ra. For all the good it could do them now. It was beautiful. Mockingly so.
Such beauty came at a terrible price: the destruction of all who bore witness. This was the Meteor, the one on everyone's lips. The one the Shin-Ra promised to stop. The one a ragtag band of ne'er-do-wells claimed would be solved at the bottom of a pit in the cold, dark northlands. And yet, here it was. The Shin-Ra had failed. The nobodies had slunk back into the shadows when it appeared that they too, had failed. They had all said their goodbyes beneath an airship in what was once the capital city of all of Gaia, and then gone their separate ways. They had returned to their homelands, to the few loved ones remaining after the devastation of the various Weapons that had piled through, or Soldiers trying to restore order, or power, by murdering those likely to lead an insurrection in their final days. Some had returned to solitude, apart from the world. One had returned to this hillside. And he was waiting for one more.
He was oddly dressed for the occasion – a suit and bowtie replaced his regular armour. It felt odd to him, and somehow heavier; heavier even than the metal plates and straps of the uniform he had worn for so many years. He moved stiffly in it, though he was never particularly graceful anyway. His blonde hair had even faced attempts to be tamed, but it had clearly won the battle for liberty, as it still stood in wild an unkempt spikes. He eyed the impending death with cool indifference, all fear having long since been replaced by shame of failure, and only a tiny bit of regret. But that had been why he had brought the battered old tape player too. There were a few reasons really for the presence of the small battery powered music player at his feet. He had recalled, from a memory long forgotten and questionably his own, that girls enjoyed music. He figured it would make a difference to her anyway, the same reason he had donned the suit. Tonight, finally, and probably too late, he would make it about her.
And here she was. He was alerted to her arrival by the noise of the parched grass cracking under her feet, despite her controlled footfalls. They had always been so light and easy to her, throwing his own clumping and awkward gait into more obvious perspective. She picked her steps towards him carefully, but swiftly, the gradient up steep but nothing to her firm and slender figure. She too was dressed unusually. A long and flowing gown, one he suspected she had always owned and never found an excuse to wear. Deep crimson in colour, the kind of red that seemed to shine and recess from the light all at once, and clung tight to her curvy figure as she moved in it. Well, he thought, if you can't at World's End, when can you? She smiled as she drew near, and broke into a full grin when she saw the suit.
Cloud greeted her with an awkward shrug and raised an arm to the back of his blonde hair. It was a gesture he never really grew out of, and she appriciated it was the best he could manage at calling a hello.
"You look... great."
It was all he could say. She really did, and he could tell she apprieciated it anyway. She had smiled all the more, blushing a little and closing here eyes as she walked the final few paces between them. He hung his arms loosely, not sure what to do with himself as she looked around the scene. She took her time, first looking at the sword, watching the light from the fire above dance on the metal, and then the blanket with the battered old tape player by it's side. That had drawn a small smirk from her, and he suddenly blushed. But now she was looking up at Meteor, and he could tell she was on the verge of tears by the way the fire shone and wobbled in her wine red eyes. He had reached out his arms before he even thought about it, and she immediately fell into them, sobbing uncontrollably into his chest and holding tight to the lapels of the suit.
"It's a rental," he muttered, "if you soak it, I won't get my deposit back tomorrow..."
She sobbed harder now, adding a pounding of her fist into his chest on every alternate sob.
"You... you..." It was all she could choke out between the sobs, but he understood and held her tighter all the same.
"Tifa..."
She sniffed loudly, and looked up into his face. He had thought the fire from her eyes had been from the reflection of the huge spotlight in the sky above them, but here it still resided, even with her face shaded from the glare. It was almost like his own eyes, flaring with mako, only he knew her fuel was far more potent. Ten years of pent up feelings, words unsaid and emotions never leaked was far more an intense kindling than an injection of stolen spirit from a dying world. She searched his eyes now, looking for some hint of emotion. Why wasn't he crying too? Wasn't he even afraid?
"Come on. We don't have long."
He led her back a few paces toward the blanket he had so paintstaking laid out to be as big as possible, with room for them both, but he wasn;t surprised that half went to waste anyway as she chose instead to cling to him as close as possible. She shivered, though it wasn't cold. He sensed the fear emnating from her, and stilled her with a firm hand on her shoulder as they sat together, her legs wrapped around his and her head in his neck.
All the words he had planned for her had vanished from his head the moment the grass had crunched at the foot of the hill, and now he felt the heat rising to his face as he searched for another one liner, or another compliment, anything to break the silence.
"It's funny..." she whispered, making him jump, "I never pictured us failing. I thought we would always find a way."
"Yeah. We were hopeful, is all. I guess we were just naive. There's some battles you just don't win. It always seems to be the ones you lose that have the biggest impact though."
He watched her ponder this, before he felt her snort, her breath hot on his neck. He shivered.
"Deep. How long do we have?" she asked. She had tried to sound casual, indifferent, but he heard her voice waver and break on the last word, and he pulled her too him, while looking up at the arms of the beast reaching further and further across the sky to the east and west.
"Six hours. Maybe less." It wasn't an educated guess. It was a hopeful bargain with whatever deity was listening. Tifa swore and burst into a new fit of sobs.
"Why? Why did he do it? Why didn't it work? I..." she broke again, and fell into him completely as he pulled her into his lap without thinking. He just wanted to shield her, protect her, and he glowered at Meteor now, personificating it as the very Soldier they had defeated at the bottom of the cave. He saw the face, showered in blood, falling away from him. The body was in tatters, and he had stood heaving, Sword in hand, and surrendered to exhaustion, safe in the knowledge the world was saved. He had come round to find Holy had failed them, and the destruction would go ahead, and his thoughts had immediately gone to this moment. Nothing else had mattered. He had left it too long, and now they had only 6 hours. Maybe less. Just him, her, and one final spotlight on them.
"It won't be long now," he said, close to her ear. She nodded.
"Better get going then, hadn't you, Cloud?" he felt her smile on his neck, wet from her tears that had come to rest there, and he suddenly felt very VERY stupid. What could he possibly say or do to show her in only 6 hours? His hand wandered toward the cassette player, and hers met his there. They rested for a moment, her hand on top of his, clutching the small electronic. He lifted it up to her face, and she ran a finger along it, laughing as she did so. It was the first carefree laugh she had managed, and it truly took the weight from his shoulders.
"Oh, Cloud," she whispered. He blushed, and realised what a cheesey and weak token it had been, but it had made her smile. Reminding her how bad he was with the ladies was sure to make her smile, and maybe even feel all the more special. Although... that wasn't the original point of the tape player.
He let her find the play button with her hand, and flicked it on.
The music flooded them instantly, louder than he had expected, and mid way through the song.
"Go put on your best tonight."
"Check," he muttered.
"It's you and me, and one spotlight."
"DOUBLE check..."
She hit him.
"To watch the world burning bright."
"Don't even..." she warned. She brought her eyes up to his again, and he saw the tiniest smile in them, as the chorus began in the song,
"WE ARE REAAADY..."
With a jolt and a fizz, the tape player crackled out, but the couple didn't care. He held her gaze, and felt the weight go from her hand as the spent device fell to the floor.
"Are we?" he asked, leaning his forehead into hers. It was cool against his. He didn't know he had been sweating. She nodded, and the two kept the eye contact. She lifted th empty hand to his cheek, and traced a slender finger along his jawline, and he leaned into it, relishing her touch, how cool her skin was, and pictured this coolness protecting him from the fire reigning down upon them, and for one crazy moment he wasn't ready. He didn't want to die. Not now this beautiful woman was finally touching him the way he had always really wanted but never really known. Her touch had ignited in him a fire, fiercer than the one above, a fire that had always been dormant and only now raged forward to the front of his mind. Why? It was so unfair. He had finally found his reason to fight on, his something to save, and now it was going to be taken away from him.
"Hey, Cloud."
She had seen his inner struggle, and had already responded by brinnging another hand up to his face, this one tracing the bones of his face. Along his nose, over his eyes, tracing patterns in his lips and eyelids. He lifted his own hand to her neck, tentative at first, but when she bared it to him he reached forward, enamoured with the coolness of her skin, loving it's smoothness. She had closed her eyes and stopped her own movements, living in the spots of skin he touched. She sighed as he raised his hand to her chin, following it round to her cheek. She fell into him, and his hands and hers passed on the way to caress each others forms, brushing for a moment that was shocking to them both, and they lay, ravishing each other with noly their hands, enjoying the sheer feel of the other, in these beautiful clothes, under a beautiful sky on a beautiful night.
A true mockery.
He hadn't kissed her yet. A part of his mind chided him for not doing so, and another part hung back childishly from the thoug and irrational fear of rejection. He had ran his fingertips over every inch of her, but couldn't get his mouth to meet hers. They had layed side by side for a while now, neither speaking, both just enjoying the perfect company.
"Not long now..." she said to herself.
"I know. This is it," he sighed. "Did you picture it ending like this?"
She thought about it.
"No. I always kinda wanted it too. Just us. Maybe there'd have been a few kids, but in the end... this was what I wanted. You, Cloud."
She opened her arms out upwards, almost as if to embrace their soon to be killer.
"Maybe this big fireball just makes it more romantic, you know? And it's unavoidable. It takes away any fears of having to... live without you."
She looked away from him, up towards the sky.
"You'll take me into your arms. Tell me when it's time. I know I won't be scared," she let out a long sigh and closed her eyes. "And when it does hit, me and you will hold on so tight, nothing will separate us. I know that whatever happens, we'll face it together, Cloud. Together. And that's why I'm not scared. I searched for so long. I'm not losing you now."
"Will you guide me?"
The question sounded pathetic, and he knew it. He felt her hand on his again, and felt the squeeze of approval.
"I promise, Cloud."
He pulled her onto him again, their faces just inches apart. He searched her eyes for one final sign of approval, and then leant forward.
"Oh Cloud! LOOK!"
She had bounded off of him, and ran to the hills crest. He scrambled after her, hoping to see Meteor turning around, or at least hanging there, even just to give him a second longer with her.
"A sunrise," she whispered, grabbing his arm as he stood next to her. "A real one."
"A last one."
She turned to face him, and wrapped two slender arms around his neck, and he let his hands fall to her hips. The real sun, back to claim it's rightful place for these last few moments beat down on her hair, showing it to be infinite shades of red, brown and all the colours in between. Her form was silhouetted against it, and he decided she was lovelier than anything he had ever seen. Meteor was bearing down upon them, and he knew they had wasted enough time already. Knew this was his last chance. The calamity screamed towards them, and he pulled her tight into his arms. He wasn't scared, but the lone tear he felt on his neck told her she was. He cupped her chin in his hand, and pulled it up to see her eyes.
"It won't be long now," he said again. He had one more thing to say, but decided it didn't need to be said. He pulled her close, and their lips met for the smallest of moments.
Then the world ended around them.