Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 7 or it's characters :P

Anyway! I couldn't get this idea out of my head! The story takes place in somewhat of an alternate reality where Tifa and Cloud have never met Reno & Rude and some dead people are actually alive lol.

Don't worry, it'll be fine!

Hope you enjoy :)

Sleeping Alone

The night had come quickly, leaving a bluish glow to blanket over everything in it's wake.
The air only had a bite of coldness to it, serving as a reminder that spring was well on it's way. Desolate roads stretched on, a soul not seen for miles.
And yet, someone was still up.
Because that someone had a job to do.

As the cool breeze rushed to meet golden locks of hair and a weary face, a rider sped through winding paths on his way home. The only thing on his mind was his warm comfortable bed with his girlfriend nestled peacefully beside him. A sound soon assaulted his ears, interrupting his thoughts of much needed sleep. Tired blue eyes searched to find the origin of this sound, only to realize he had run out of gas. Strangely enough, he thought he had refilled it just a few days ago.

"Great." He breathed almost in defeat at this never ending day.

As the man neared familiar streets, he soon took a detour in order to refuel his bike.
Home was only a few streets away, so close and yet so far. Cloud grabbed the nozzle and began to pump fuel into a very thirsty Fenrir. During the wait, another biker pulled into the station. A head full of blazing red hair was the most striking attribute to this man, his clothes casual, yet sloppy. The red haired man eyed Cloud, almost suspiciously before fingering in the digits of his credit card into the keypad.

'Does this guy think I'm gonna rob him or something?' Cloud rolled his eyes.

"Nice bike!" The redhead called out suddenly.

"Thanks."

"What model is that?" Red asked.

"It's custom made."

The redhead let out a low whistle now,

"Funny thing, I've got a friend with a bike just like that."

This almost made Cloud laugh. He was sure Fenrir was the only one of it's kind, if someone else had one then they probably copied. And even if they did copy it, Cloud very much doubted they would be able to match the power Fenrir had. He had sought to it himself to find rare parts from all over the world in order to build it.

"You sure? This bike's one of a kind." The blond proudly voiced his thoughts before pulling the nozzle out of his prized bike and hooking it back up to the fuel pump where it belonged. When he turned back around, he patted his bike with a gloved hand, admiring it's fine detail work and mechanics. Surely, he could understand if someone copied it.

It was beautiful.

"Yeah, well... maybe hers is a little bigger than yours though." The incessant red head piped up.
'Hers?' It came as somewhat of a shock to the blond warrior. A girl riding a bigger bike than Fenrir? If anyone was driving something like Fenrir, he'd definitely notice, even more so if it were a girl doing the driving.

The redhead seemed to pick up the disbelief in Cloud's eyes.

"Yeah man, The Queen of the Streets has a bike just like that one."
"Queen of the Streets?" Cloud finally let out his laugh, 'Is that what this girl goes by?'
"Hey! Don't laugh about it! She rides hard and dirty!" The red head obviously had a liking to this 'Queen of the Streets' girl, his voice was quite passionate in defending her.

Cloud could only shake his head, he really could care less and didn't have time to worry about all this. This street queen was probably just some rich kid that did underground racing to rebel against her parents or something, which was hardly anything to be concerned about.

The weary blond got on his bike, revved up Fenrir for a while and then took off, leaving the pesky red head behind in the dust. He didn't care to say goodbye, he didn't know him. The most important thing right now, was home calling to him.

The soft yellow lights emanating from the large windows of the 7th Heaven bar only reminded him how warm and welcoming home was. Cloud killed the engine and began to walk up to the front door, his hand was about to grab the doorknob but the door swung open instead.

In the doorway stood his childhood friend and recently girlfriend, Tifa Lockhart. He smiled. Mako blue eyes scanned her features, she was still as beautiful as ever leaning in that doorway, welcoming him home.
For some reason, tonight she was no longer wearing her usual outfit of flowing black leather and shorts. Instead, she wore the black miniskirt and white tank top she had donned on when they had both fought against Sephiroth so many years ago. That outfit could do many things to a man, and he was no exception. Their night under the Highwind served as a good reminder to that.
His wanting hands soon wrapped around her in a tender embrace before he kissed her welcoming mouth, she tasted so good.

"Were you waiting up for me?" The blond hero asked after they parted ways from their kiss. A warm smile gave him the answer he needed, of course she had waited up for him, she usually did.

After making sure the locks were on, they both headed to the kitchen, a delicious smell wafted in the air. The hungry swordsman sat down and promptly began eating, savoring this much needed meal. It was warm, filling and delicious. Nobody could cook like her, and he was damn grateful for it. Cloud Strife sure was a lucky man.

"You're so good to me." Thankfulness and appreciation clear in his voice.

This made her giggle, a blush pinked her cheeks. For the usually quiet man, it was a rare occasion for him to pay her a compliment; whenever he did, she couldn't help but blush. Leaning over, she poured a drink into his glass,

"I can tell you had a hard day."
"It was too long." His fork scraped lightly against the plate before looking up, "The kids asleep?"
"Yeah, hours ago," Tifa sat across from him now, a cup of tea held in her hands.
She took a sip from it before continuing,
"There was a little argument between the two of them today."
Cloud's eyebrows furrowed slightly, "Argument?"
Tifa shook her head, smiling to herself before she took another sip, "It's really dumb too."
"How so?"
"Well, apparently Denzel thinks boys are better than girls. So of course Marlene argued back." Tifa relayed the information to her boyfriend, "There's a border line in the room now, Marlene's not allowed to walk on Denzel's side, same goes for Denzel not walking on Marlene's."

Cloud set his fork down, he had finished eating.
"So how are they going to go in and out of the room without crossing on each others side?"
"The area by the doorway is neutral territory." Tifa smirked.
Cloud could only shake his head. This little argument between the kids really was dumb, then again what did kids have to fight about anyway?
It usually was trivial things like boys vs girls.

"I'll talk to Denzel tomorrow." Cloud said as he began to wash his dishes out in the sink, he was rinsing his plate off when suddenly a shift in movement cut through the air. He turned to the left of him to find Tifa had hopped up on the counter top beside him. This was quite uncharacteristic of her, she had never hopped up on a counter top before.

'Is she picking bad habits up from her rowdy customers now?'

Tifa soon crossed her legs and began to wag her foot lightly to an invisible beat. Come to think of it, there was a certain air about her lately that the perplexed blond couldn't quite place, an independent aloofness?

The bar hostess didn't even seem tired for this late hour, and she didn't look like she was headed to bed anytime soon either considering she wasn't wearing her pajamas. Usually, she'd be dressed for bed whenever she waited for him.

"Was the bar busy tonight?" The young man asked the girl as he dried the dish with a towel.
"It was fine." She said coolly, not really looking at him. Cloud placed the dish on the rack and watched the raven haired girl a little suspiciously.
Most of the time she would acknowledge him somehow when they talked, whether it was through eye contact or some other engaging behavior. Right now it seemed like she was almost avoiding his eyes.

Cloud quickly pushed these thoughts out of his head. 'Don't be stupid, Cloud. She doesn't have to be engaging every time we talk... you're not even engaging every time you talk!'
There was no reason to be paranoid, so he figured he just needed some sleep.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for bed?" He asked before drying his hands with a towel. Though his thoughts were far away from the topic at hand, mako blue eyes somehow found their gaze upon her long smooth legs. He had wanted to touch them from the moment she had opened the door, and he wanted to make good on that inner desire. It had taken him a long time to break out of his shy shell, and the blond still was shy for the most part, but gradually thanks to Tifa's gentle coaxing, he found kissing her to be one of the most exhilerating things he had ever felt. Kissing wasn't hard at all, especially since her lips were always welcoming. It was touching her that made him nervous, especially when it came to bare skin. He had a lot more to learn in that department, which was funny considering they had gone the whole way that night under the Highwind.

And here she was so many years later, sitting there... it felt like she was almost taunting him with those legs of hers. Slowly, he reached out to touch the side of her thigh, his nimble hand still slightly wet from the dish water. Gently, he began to rub her smooth skin under his fingertips in light circular motions. This caused the girl to shift a little from his touch, she uncrossed her legs and- believing this to be a signal, now he contemplated going in for a kiss.

"I'm not that tired yet," the maroon eyed girl suddenly said.
'Huh? Oh...' He had completely forgotten he had asked her a question just a minute ago. This caused him to mentally sigh, 'Don't make moves on a girl when you're tired.' He hoped he wasn't being awkward, though she'd never get mad at him about that. Living in a test tube for so many years, you were bound to be awkward.

Suddenly, Tifa hopped down from the counter, causing him to take a step back. His hands fell to his sides in defeat now. A smirk played at her lips, before he knew it she had a hand caressed against the side of his cheek, the tint of a blush colored his cheeks as he watched her.
A soft kiss was soon planted at the corner of his mouth, with a tiny moment like that all the feelings of awkwardness dissipated.
"I think I'll watch a movie before going to bed." She gave him a sweet smile, it made him feel at ease, and also a bit stupid now about his earlier suspicions of her.

A yawn now threatened to erupt from his lips and he knew he couldn't stay up any longer.
The young man leaned down to kiss the smiling mouth of his girlfriend, "Alright, but I'm exhausted." The weary blond murmured near her mouth, "Goodnight, Teef." The girl responded by wrapping her arms around his middle and massaged her fingertips into an achy spot on his back, it felt like sweet relief.

"Goodnight, Cloud." Her loving voice carried through the air as he ascended up the stairs towards their bedroom. Once he shrugged off his clothing the tired warrior collapsed onto his bed, sweet much needed slumber taking him away.

The sleeping man didn't realize his girlfriend had never turned the television on, he would never hear any sounds of said movie she would be watching, nor did he hear the sound of the door being opened followed by her soft footsteps towards his beloved Fenrir that was parked up and waiting for a secret rendezvous.

While Cloud Strife rested peacefully in slumber, the purr of Fenrir's engine fell on deaf ears. It really was too bad that he didn't notice all of these things.

Woo! hope you guys like it so far :D I write faster when i get a lot of reviews :P hopefully the next chapter will be up soon :)