A/N: I'm beyond glad my first CloTi fanfic in years is loved! Thank you for the lovely reviews, ChildishStrife, Namiroku, Angelus, Phates-Silver-Eyes, sunflowerspot, and anonymous! Believe me, your review worth more than you'd ever know :'D And about adding chapters to Realization, I will consider that ^^ Here's another one-shot, hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I own nothing besides the plot :D
Warning: A bit OOC Cloud xD

I curse for the ninth time in the past thirty minutes as I stumble upon a freaking bunch of pebbles. I must be really in a hangover state, blame the stupid summer. It's one of the days when everything seems to like picking on me as much as Yuffie does.

Half an hour ago...

"Dammit!" I exclaimed under my breath. Fenrir, my black, sleek, sexy bike is betraying me. I don't even understand why; after all the care I've given him, he has to act up now.

"Fine, whatever! You're staying here."

So here I am, scolding an inanimate motorcycle and then suffering the aftermath of the mentioned thoughtless action. Well, it's not like I have other choices. I don't want to drag it all the way home, even though it could be one helluva cool show.

I swam through tides of people. Edge is much cooler—hell, it freezes—in winter than Kalm, Rocket Town, Costa del Sol (well, duh), and so on, but the summer here feels like Ifrit has set a fireplace as a margin of the city. It's burning here, people, as bad as that.

I'm feeling weary already and I begin to regret my decision of going out in the middle of the day, although my watch shows it's three PM right now (but that doesn't make any difference anyway, tch). You see, everything's gonna be much easier if only Fenrir isn't being rebellious. This heat means nothing when I'm riding that bike. It doesn't matter if there's no breeze, the speed will create enough.

Sigh... It's really hot... I'm gonna melt, I'm gonna transform into a cup of ice cream. Hey, that sounds like a plan. I'm gonna eat myself to cool down, and hope I taste like chocolate instead of blood and skin... and bones.

Ew.

Oh, hey! I'm home! Great! I didn't know talking about eating oneself out could actually be so distracting!

I enter the bar, which is my home, and walk across the room 'till I reach the long bar table. It's the thing that separates kitchen with customers. I sit silently on one of the bar stools, watching her as she stands with her back facing me. She is preoccupied in mixing drinks together. Her hair is tied loosely and I can tell she's tired.

She turns around quickly and visibly gasps when she sees me. "Cloud?" she muttered out loud.

I nod, "Hey."

Tifa puts down a glass of the mentioned drink to the customer beside me, accompanied with a polite smile. Much to my displeasure, the man replied it with a slightly disturbing one. Okay, I'll just blurt it out. He's definitely a womanizer, a pervert one. Oh, this fella better not be against me too, though he obviously is, in a completely different meaning.

I glance at him, giving him the best glare I could manage after years of practice. Really, being a bar bodyguard isn't that simple, especially when the-only; note that-bartender is a female. People sometimes misunderstand this act as me being possessive over this coincidentally attractive barmaid in front of us. But really, it's merely because in my opinion, Tifa doesn't, and will never, deserve that sort of disrespect. She is a woman, you repulsive creature!

I knew that he is a womanizer, but now that I take a good look at him, I realize just how MUCH he is. A fail one, of course. He has sleek, over-foamed black hair that reaches the middle of the neck. He wears a pale brown suit which makes me grimace remembering how hot it is today. We are sitting quiet a couple if inches apart, but I can smell his over-poured cologne it makes me feel nauseous. I dare to bet he takes a bath with a tub full of cologne. Hell, he might DRINKS cologne, for all I care. He kinds of reminds me of Rufus ShinRa, by the way.

Ew.

Mr. Fail Casanova looks back at me. He seems to be annoyed at first, but then he stares at my SOLDIER, mako-enhanced eyes, then to my blades attached on my back. Yeah, you better be scared, man. Or you'll end up looking like a lost puppy sprawled on the street before you know it.

I glance back forward to find Tifa's own warning stare, her fists on both side of her hip. I lift both of my hands in defense, as if saying "I'm just trying to help". I know, though, that Tifa doesn't like it when I scare off a customer, no matter if it was for her sake.

She continues with filling another glass with drinks, this time while facing me. "I didn't hear Fenrir." she says, more like a question than a statement.

I grunt as my thought flies back to that troublesome buddy. "Have to leave him, he's acting up."

Tifa smiled mischievously and I almost wonder if she likes seeing me in suffer. "He wants you to take a walk, then."

"But it's burning out there," I mumble a disagreement.

"And you wearing black all the time won't help, Cloud. Try to cheer up a bit with the colors!" Believe me; I've heard that for around 12.5 times this summer. I'm serious with the decimal. "Go take a shower and get the kids to dinner downstairs later, okay?" she says.

I nod curtly and swing open the bar door to head for the stairs, cursing slightly when it bumps back, creating a clanking sound against my blades. Hell yeah, even that waist-high door decides to pull a prank on me. I feel Tifa's eyes looking at my back as I walk upstairs. My legs are put on a halt when I remember something. I glance back a bit and catch a glimpse of Mr. Cologne-showered-magically-feeling-no-heat-in-such-a-suit staring at my back as well, but I ignore him anyway. I believe I gave enough intimidating warning already.

I sigh, relieving some of my tension as I shut the door behind me. I really am getting a headache from the heat, but I'm just partly sure.

Why did I dip myself in hell, you ask? I sigh again, reaching into my pocket to take a small, threadbare box. Now here comes another problem. And if this one is against me as well, I might as well literally dip myself in the Arctic Ocean.

I shake my head, dismissing every negative thought from my mind as I drag myself to the bathroom. But of course, I was trying in vain since shower stall is where your thought wanders the most.

All sort of emotions crept up into my heart and they demand to explode. I feel them pushing and pulling me and threaten me to just... Well, die.

Like hell I could do that. Not now, not when there are way too many things to be done. I'll die later when everything is finished. When someday I could say, "It had been an incredible ride, mission accomplished.", and that is certainly not near.

Or is it?

I finish showering and walk out into my bedroom. And that, my friend, is the moment where everything goes wrong. I hear some loud thuds, unfamiliar-but in the same time too familiar-footsteps, then some voices follow.

"Dammit, brat! Behave!"

"Oh, shut up, old man!"

Cid.

Yuffie.

Almight Gaia, what have I done to deserve this?!

Someone knock on my door and comes Tifa's voice, dimmed behind that door. "Cloud, are you done? Cid and Yuffie are waiting for you downstairs."

Yeah, I can totally hear that. "Alright, I'm going there."

So, to cut down any waste of time and to sum up the long story short, Cid and Yuffie went home at freaking eleven in the evening after disturbing me and Tifa. Seriously, those two have no sensitivity whatsoever. I was dying from feeling anxious for hours and they went on and on about things I don't even remember anymore.

It's just now that I realize maybe they DID notice how anxious I was—which I guess, they knew over what—and decided to pick on me even more.

I visibly sigh and Tifa smiles at me. "Please don't mind them, Cloud. They were so happy they could pay a visit. Thing's been fairly busy for them nowadays."

"I know, I just wish they would think carefully next time. Visiting is fine, it really is. But...," I grunt. "Nevermind."

Tifa's smile hasn't faltered when she puts away a cloth. "Well, I'm finished. I'm going to bed, you should—"

"Wait, Tifa...!" I cut off her sentence.

She looks at me, bewildered. I know it's not like me to be doing this, so I can understand the concern in her eyes.

"What is it?"

"Uh... I...," I am nervous, and Tifa walking towards me isn't helping at all. She takes a seat beside me, her stare still fixed on me.

Come on, Strife. Don't be a coward.

I try to ignore the annoying fact that I just addressed myself as a third person and gather up my courage. "Uh, there's something I want to give to you...," I search my pocket and take out that problematic little box. I quickly open it and yank the thing out of it. Tifa is watching the whole process with amusement, probably amazed at how fast I'm doing everything.

I show that thing to her; it is the wolf ring I usually wear on daily basis. It's made of thick silver, and the curves are created in detail. It's a little worn off, with scratches here and there, courtesy of years of fighting, but if anything, it only adds more antique feeling into the ring.

"Here, uh... I had it resized earlier, I... I want you to have this." I say as I hand it over to her.

She is surprised, more than I imagined. Her jaw drops slightly but her face is painted with a truly happy smile. She stammers, "Cloud, you... You walked in-"

"Hell." I quickly added.

She laughs. "You walked in hell for this...?" she asks, hints of disbelief lingering in her tone. She takes the little thing anyway.

I feel my face heating up and I look away in embarrassment. "D-don't mind it, I wanted to do it." I say. I dare myself to face her and smile.

She smiles back as she slips the ring into her right ring finger, and I mentally sigh in relief to see that it fits perfectly. Not that I don't want to do it again, but seriously, I'm kinda traumatized.

After a while in silence, Tifa moves. She reaches up to her right ear and in a moment, her pearl, tear-drop-shaped earring is in her hands. She hands it over to me. "I want you to have this too. I know you won't be able to wear this, but... At least you have something... of me." I have to keep back a smile when I see her own blush.

I stare at the earring and my mind lingers on her words she once said to me. "Isn't this your mother's? It's a precious thing, I don't deserve it, Teef." I say honestly.

She shakes her head, takes my hand, put it on my palm, and closes my fingers over it. "No, I want you to have it, Cloud." she continues when I hesitate, her hands still on mine. "If one day you are about to go for a long time, you can return it to me when you're home again." she says, smiling.

My lips crook upwards into a smile as well. "Right. Thank you, I'll take care of it."

And by the grace of either Gaia, or Aerith, or ShinRa for all I care, Tifa leans in hesitantly and plants a shy kiss on my cheek.

That is when I know that of Ifrit margin, rebellious bike, Mr. I'm-gonna-wear-suit-in-summer, shower stall frustration, little annoying ninja, and foul-mouthed pilot, life can still be beautiful if only—

"Dammit, Spike!"

Sigh. If only Barret didn't see his daughter kissing a SOLDIER.

A/N: Hope you like it! And I do know that Tifa's earring is probably made of silver, but Wolf and Silver doesn't really sound like a god title OTL And I believe this story is partly true; in Advent Children, Tifa is wearing the said ring and her right earring is missing. Unless she has another reason, that earring might be in the good hand of Cloud Strife, hidden somewhere ;)