AN: I decided to really challenge myself and write about a character I don't like. The first one that comes to mind is Cloud. I know, I know. He's a hero- whatevs. He is incredibly wrapped in himself. Everyone around Midgar had a rough life, his certainly wasn't an exception. Even his saving the world was for revenge. :shrugs: And he's dumb as dirt.

So now I get to make myself like him!

Cloud looked up from the bar to the source of the laughter ringing across the bar. A young girl with long, dark brown hair, darker than Aerith's, was laughing loudly with her friends.

"I don't believe you for a second, you liar!" she cried across the table, wiping away tears of laughter from her dark eyes. She noticed the blonde man watching her from across the bar, grinned, and winked at him.

Cloud chuckled and shook his head, returning his gaze to his drink.

"He's cute!" one of the girl's friends said.

"Mmmhmm," she agreed.

"Go say hi!"

He heard the girl sigh. "If he'd wanted to meet me, he'd come over. He's obviously just here to have a quiet drink."

"Well, good luck with that!" another one of her friends laughed.

As the evening wore on, Cloud became increasingly impressed with the girl. Her friends kept egging her to introduce herself to him and she stood her ground. He was very impressed... and grateful.

He supposed he owed her this as he walked out the door to follow her.

"Hey," he said.

She turned quickly, "Hi."

"Look, I, uh, I just wanted to thank you for what you did back there," Cloud said and gestured back to the bar.

"Don't worry about it," she laughed. "You don't really seem the type to pick up girls in bars, anyway."

He chuckled. "No kidding."

They stood in silence for a moment.

"So, what's your name?" the blonde asked out of the blue. Why did I just ask that?

The girl seemed just as shocked as he was."Oh! It's Evalie."

He smiled, "Nice to meet you, Evalie."

She giggled, "Just call me Evvie. So, what'm I supposed to call you?"

He chuckled, "Cloud."

"Well, Cloud, this'll sound like a pick up line, and it's not supposed to, but, do you wanna come by my place for a drink?"

Cloud blinked for a moment. "Sure."

"Uhnf."

"Oh, Holy."

"Oh, FUCK!"

Cloud groaned and rolled over, hiding his eyes from the bright sunlight. Damn hangover.

Then Cloud bumped into something warm and soft that was most definitely not blankets.

Then Cloud heard a "Wha?" and opened his eyes.

Oh, no. The girl with the long brown hair that was darker than Aerith's was lying beside him in a strange bed.

"Nngh. Whu- what happened?" she blinked at him.

What was her name? Ev... Ev- something.

Ev-something laughed at his expression. "It's okay. I don't remember it either."

Cloud spent the next day at the girl with the long brown hair that was darker than Aerith's house. He learned quite a few things about her.

Her family had lived in Wutai. Her mother was Wutai. She and Ev's father met while he was on vacation.

Her father worked for Shin-Ra and got her mother a job there too.

Her family moved to Midgar when she was five.

Her parents died when the Shin-Ra building collapsed.

Afterwards, she struggled to make ends meet while preserving what they'd left for her.

She got a job as a mechanic and was able to live comfortably and, eventually, buy the garage for herself.

A year or so ago, she was stricken with crippling Geostigma in her lungs and had nearly drowned herself to get rid of it.

She hated bugs, was allergic to most flowers, and loved anything sweet.

She didn't think much of him saving the planet. "Anyone can do impossible things when they don't want to die."

She didn't hold him to an impossibly high standard.

She didn't expect him to give things he couldn't give.

She just treated him like he was a normal person.

She giggled when he called her "Ev".

He decided to call her "Ev" more often.

"So, Cloud," Yuffie 'casually' sauntered over to him. "What's this I hear about you hangin' around with a girl?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Cloud noticed Tifa froze and looked at him with wide eyes. He cursed Yuffie's timing.

"Her name's Evvie," he murmured

"So you're not gay," Cid chimed.

"Of course I'm not gay!"

"Is she pretty?"

Cloud sighed in response, painfully aware that Tifa was still staring.

"Well, you'll just have to bring her by so we can judge for ourselves!"

Cloud brought her to Seventh Heaven.

Evalie spent the afternoon and much of the evening speaking Wutainese with Yuffie, exchanging insults with Cid, talking softly with Vincent, dancing with Marlene, and playing video games with Denzel. Even Nanaki took a shine to her- theorizing with her well past dinner time.

But, unlike everyone else, Tifa spent the evening in the kitchen banging around pots and pans and yelling at everyone who came in.

Cloud wasn't sure that bringing Ev here was such a good idea.

"Cloud?" Evvie asked as they rumbled into the driveway.

"Yeah?" Cloud brought Fenrir to a stop.

"I don't want to go back to Seventh Heaven any more," she said quietly, sighing as she forced herself to unwrap her arms from around his waist and stand.

"Yeah," the blond agreed and pulled her close as they walked to the door. "I don't blame you."

Cloud had disappeared again. He knew Ev didn't like it when he had his 'fits of emo' as she called them. He knew she wanted him to let go. He knew it killed her to know he couldn't move on.

But it destroyed him to know that, at times, she was still the girl with hair darker than Aerith's.

When he came home, it was the most wonderful homecoming he'd ever been given.

And, as he fiercely kissed the crying, laughing girl, he idly wondered when he started to think of her house as home.

"Cloud," she said quitely and rested her forehead against his. "I can't keep doing this."

He sighed softly, "I know."

"You keep disappearing. And for months on end. You have to make up your mind," she murmured. "I'd like to think I mean more to you than a ghost."

He smiled gently. No one had put it quite like that before. He opened his piercing blue eyes.

"You do," he whispered.

She tilted her face to look up at him. "Are you sure?" She looked so afraid.

"Yes," the blonde said warmly. "I'm sure."

"Oh, Cloud," she breathed and leaned forward to press her lips to his.

He suppressed a groan as he slowly unzipped her sweater. He loved it when she kissed him like this.