I don't own FF7 or its characters and make no profit from writing these stories.

The teenager was small in stature but muscular with trademark soft blonde spikes that were raised on his head. His face was almost pretty with large liquid blue eyes that gave him an innocent look. He lived in the small town of Nibelheim, which was pretty much the same as any small town on Gaia but the difference was a future hero lived there, but he didn't know it yet. The Nibelheim Cloud was younger, more innocent, hopeful, cheerful and a hopeless fan of Sephiroth. He was a popular boy and had as his neighbour the hottest girl in school, who was also his almost girlfriend.

Tifa was leggy, slim in all the right places and curvy in others and fifteen to Cloud's sixteen. She was a pretty girl and the only future she had planned was being Mrs. Strife.

They were considered to be a good couple and people couldn't imagine them ever parting. They were the sort of couple people saw as forever being together, both cheerful and easy going and obviously in love but weren't officially together.

However, they were parting when Cloud told Tifa of his plans to run away and join SOLDIER and become a SOLDIER 1st Class like his hero. They lay in a field staring up at a blanket of stars while he told this to her.

She rolled onto her side to study him, able to see him clearly in the light of the full moon "I thought you were thinking of taking the mechanic's job Jimmy's dad offered you?" she said, hating the idea of him leaving her.

He turned to face her "I want more than this, I want more than here. I want to be hero like Sephiroth" he said to her. She studied his calm, boyish features as if trying to commit his face to memory.

"You want more then me" she said, rolling away from him. He placed his hand on the soft flesh of her back that her bikini top revealed.

"Of course not, you're my girl" he assured her when she rolled over.

"You will still want me even after you leave?" she asked looking at him through hesitant, clear garnet coloured eyes.

"You're be my girl always. Once I prove myself and become a SOLDIER 1st Class, I want you by my side forever. Wait for me Tifa, promise you will" he said to her in earnest, caressing her cheek and she leaned into his touch.

"When do you leave?" she asked him.

"First thing in the morning" he answered her. "It's not that I don't care for you. I'm doing this for us" he assured her. "Don't you want to be with a hero?"

"I just want you. We have tonight. You know that thing I told you I preferred to wait for marriage? I want you right now" she said.

"Are you sure?" he asked her.

"Yes" she said as she snuggled closer to him and allowed him to remove her bikini top, skirt and panties.

His nude body soon sheltered her as he took her virginity and surrendered his own to her as they made love for the first time to the sound of crickets chirping, on the old blanket they had brought to do nothing more innocent then star gazing. Afterwards they lay in each other's arms. They both saw the same falling star and she wished to be Mrs. Strife and him, a SOLDIER 1st Class.

In the morning, they kissed goodbye and swore love's true love vow as he picked up the pack he had hidden so his mother wouldn't know he was gone and Tifa promised to deliver his goodbye note to her.

So Cloud left and Tifa stayed and waited for him. Cloud wasn't great about writing and wasn't allowed a lot of phone calls, but what communication she received from his was positive. His training was going well and he had made friends with a Soldier 1st Class called Zachary Fair. He seemed happy but missed her.

She jumped for joy when she received Cloud's letter that he was coming with Sephiroth and Zack to inspect the Mako Reactors and he had recommended her father be their guide so she would have an excuse to meet them too. She wrote back to remind him to bring his camera and picked up her new outfit, it was a cowgirl outfit that she had received for her recent sixteenth birthday and was the sexiest garment she had ever owned and longed for Cloud to see her in it.

She began counting down the days until she could see him again.

Their meeting sounded really boring as far as the girl was concerned but seeing Cloud and meeting his hero in the flesh sounded exciting to the small town girl.