CHAPTER 1

Tifa ran through the fray of gaping buildings of the slums the place had just been thrashed into nothingness as an exuding fight took place just moments ago. As soon as the Highwind landed on the platform she sprung her form into a stretch of inhuman speed, her destination a certain blond man who had just defeated a mortal enemy.

She arrived at the scene, with mixed feelings of mortification and shock, her eyes widened as she stopped at her tracts with her boots scraping dangerously at the crumbled concrete below her feet, her eyes wandered into the two form, Cloud was holding someone, she figured it was the enemy, it was strange though because it seems that the young man was someone she completely knew. He had short silver hair, and he wore a leather suit with a crescent badge on the left shoulder.

Cloud looked up at her with the expression of hurt and apology, he was crying.

Tifa was glued at her place, as she saw the blood and gore before her eyes, silent tears ran down her pale and bruised skin. The tears burned her wounds and made its way to her mouth. She didn't understand what she was feeling. Why would she feel a heart gripping pain for the enemy, why would Cloud have that expression of regret on his face when he had won the fight?

The young man turned to her, his familiar green eyes held such love and adoration towards her as if he was apologizing to her. She was confused.

He then slowly lifted a frail gloved hand with what strength he had left towards her. He tried opening his mouth as if to tell her that he was okay, like a child picking himself up after he had just stumbled from a run. Everything went hazy for a moment and suddenly her eyes zoomed to his mouth to hear what he has to say.

"M..M…Ma.."

His hands started to dissipate into blue dust-like particles that could only be coming from the Lifestream.

Tifa's mouth ran dry and she could barely open her mouth to say anything. When she started moving towards them it was as if they were going farther and farther away from her. She could not move her legs suddenly and no matter what she does she could not do anything.

Her cries seems to be a deafened plea as she screamed to the top of her lungs to stop them from getting farther away, by this time the young man was already half gone, her knees collapsed before her as she lifted a hand, her other hand supporting her form as tears flowed like a raging river mirroring her grief.

Tifa woke up from cold sweat, she was still clutching the blanket to her form afraid that someone might come and take it away, there were tears from her eyes as she stares at the ceiling, her breathing was still labored.

'God it was just a dream'

She craned her neck to look at the time at the bedside table.

3:24 am

She wiped her tears with her clammy hands, the room suddenly felt cold as she slowly sat up from the bed. She rested her head at her left hand and started to massage the damned headache. She was still breathing hard and she was finding it hard to go back to sleep by the minute.

A warm touch made its way in her cold sweaty back, only then she realized she had been naked from the passionate night only a few hours ago.

"What's wrong?" he said as he sat up placing his large hands along her shoulders, she felt warmer. Tifa looked at him, his eyes still puffy from sleep and maybe from the extraneous activity, but otherwise he was still beautiful. Although he detests being called beautiful, it was the only word she could describe him, he didn't mind now.

"You're sweating like crazy"

He momentarily leaned away from her to retrieve a small face towel from the bedside table on his side, being able to possess a long torso and limbs. She felt cold again but his touch left warm sensations waiting to be burned again.

As soon as he got the towel he sat up behind her, gathering her raven black hair into one side and started to pat the towel in her smooth and creamy skin. Behind her he smirked as he could see a visible number of love bites from the night before.

"Was it a nightmare?" his baritone voice let out as minutes passed by when she was still silent, maybe satiated and comforted by the small gesture he made for her.

"Huh? Oh ugh, yeah."

"What was it about?"

She fell silent again, recalling the dream, her eyes went to the window to her left, she could see the moon shining through them, illuminating the room with an ethereal bluish glow, there were still quite a number of stars outside she thought.

"Well?" he pressed on, she was still spacing out.

"I can't remember"

"Was it that bad?"

"I don't know" she answered sincerely, she had just a nightmare moments ago but she found out that recalling what the dream was about was proving to be a very difficult task, she wanted to tell him what it was but was unable to.

"Well it's just a dream, you need to go back to rest, I've already disrupted your sleep, here." He said comforting her and laying her with him back to bed. When he came home from work she was already asleep, but when he went to bed he couldn't resist the temptation of running his calloused hand from touching the velvety smooth skin of the sleeping form of his wife who was just wearing a very flimsy nightgown and everything went into a blur when she woke up to straddle him with a surprisingly did-not-woke-up-from-a-deep-sleep strength. He figured maybe she lying in wait for her prey to come in which the prey submitted himself into. He was naked too she could tell, from the bare skin that she could feel through their contact underneath the soft silk-like blanket.

She pressed her face into his neck, relieving the sweet smelling musk that she adore, his jaw line shifted for a moment when she heard him call out her name. She looked up, those gleaming emeralds he possess never fails to convey what he was about to say.

" I love you"

Tifa smiled as she closed her eyes and started to sink in deeper into him, her hands made its way into his chest as she could hear and feel his heart beat, it was wonderful and also beautiful. Moments passed again, as she craned as far as her neck could take and ran open mouthed kisses into his neck. She felt him swallow and she smiled beneath her kisses, amused at his antics. She then regained her previous position below him, contented, she resigned herself to sleep.

Actions truly spoke more than words and Sephiroth was more satisfied, he circled his long limbs across his woman who was now sleeping soundly at the sound of his beating heart.