C.h.a.p.t.e.r.1:C.a.m.p.
"Cloud, wait! Please...Try to understa-wait! You can't understand can you Cloud?"
Before she even realized what she was saying, he turned to her.
"Aeris, why? Why do you have to go alone? What if Sephiroth finds you? What then? What if...he kills you, what do I do then Aeris?" Cloud's voice rose with every word until he was finally shouting at her. He stopped though, once he saw the two silver tears that had fallen from her eyes.
When he resumed, his voice was much lower, softer, filled with compassion, sorrow, and maybe- Aeris dared to dream- love. "I...I can't live without you Aeris. We'll go together! No! Wait! We'll just forget about the Ancients, and their Temple or city, or wherever it is you wanna go pray at and then we can-"
"-Cloud." She cut him off with that single word, spoken with a soft tone full of confidence and resolution. "You don't understand me at all, do you? You don't respect my decision! You don't respect my people. Moreover, you don't respect me Cloud. I know what I'm doing! I'm not a little girl, ok? Why can't you just let me go?"
" I can't Aeris. I just can't. I don't want to see you get hurt! And you're not making any sense! I can't lose you! I just can't!"
She started to walk away, towards the Temple of the Ancients. "I'm through with this." She said as she turned her back on the camp. Turned her back on her friends. Turned her back on Cloud.
Cloud grabbed her arm desperately.
"Let me go Cloud. If you care at all, don't do this to me! I've made my decision."
"Aeris I-"
"Save it Cloud. Let go of me."
"Aeris, I love you!" Even though he had finally said the words that he had been dying to say ever since their date at the Gold Saucer, the response he got was nothing like any of the ones he had expected.
"If you really loved me, you wouldn't be doing this to me. Let me go Cloud."
Her retort stung him as deeply as she had known it would. She hated to inflict pain that deep on him, but she knew it was necessary. The truth was, she didn't wanna cause Cloud any pain at all. She just wanted him to love her, and her to love him. But life wasn't that simple, and Aeris knew it. Cloud never seemed to treat her like the woman she was. He was always treating her like a little kid at the times when it really mattered. Like now. But she didn't dare look at him. Not at his eyes. His deep, piercing, glittering, perfect, sad, pained- no! She wasn't going to think about his eyes. If she thought about them too much, she would look at him...
Almost as if he read her mind, he said, "Look at me Aeris."
Her heart stopped beating. She knew, above all things, that she wanted nothing more than to look at his eyes. She also knew though that looking at his eyes would make her surrender, which she was not about to do.
When Cloud saw that she wasn't going to look at him, he spun her quickly, causing her to lose her balance and fall into him as he caught her. Then she made her fatal mistake-she saw his eyes. His amazingly perfect eyes.
She saw his pain, his confusion, and more importantly, his love. She saw herself being drawn inexorably to him. She tried to struggle, but her heart wasn't in it, however much her mind was.
Cloud, noticing her distress, smiled gently, and kissed her. At first, she clung to him in shock, not able to register what was happening between them. The closeness of his breath, the feeling of his lips on hers. Before she knew it, she was kissing him back with an intensity that would have surprised her had she not been so focused on Cloud.
After what seemed like an eternity, Cloud lifted her off of her feet, and held her bride-style, with her arms around his neck. She gasped as he broke off the kiss, and somehow managed to whisper hoarsely
"So then you really do love me."
Cloud just smiled. Aeris realized he did that a lot when he was with her.
"Aeris, I'll let you go now."
She wasn't sure if she had heard him right. She was still reliving the kiss.
"Goodbye Aeris. Just remember, I love you."
"Bye Cloud," she said distractedly.
As she walked slowly away, Cloud went over to wake up Tifa and Vincent, whom he had found made the best team out of the whole party, and strangely enough, found both of them awake, and not only that, but also talking to each other.
He brushed off his surprise as he quickly briefed them.
"Tif, Vincent, Aeris just went to the Temple. I tried to convince her not to go, but you know Aeris. She's so stubborn sometimes..Can you guys watch the camp for me while I'm gone? Make sure nothing happens, ok?"
"Yeah. We understand, right Vincent?" Tifa was pretty quick on the uptake.
"Of course."
But by the time they had answered him, he was already gone.
"Well, Vincent, we both saw what happened there."
"No, Tif, we are not going to go spy on them."
It was strange, how Vincent called her Tif. Nobody except Cloud had ever done that before, and that had started back when they were only 15...
However, it seemed so natural to her that he call her that that she took it in stride. She knew she had feelings for Vincent: he probably knew that too. She didn't know how strong they were, if they would ever come to anything or anything else like that. All she knew was that she just wanted someone who could heal her broken heart...
"C'mon Vincent! If we don't spy on them, then how are we gonna know what happens out there?"
"Yeah Vincent! If we spy on them, maybe we'll get to see them make out or something!"
"Yuffie, what are you doing out here?" Vincent asked.
"Well, considering that the two of them were so loud, it was kinda hard to fall asleep..."
"All right. Everyone who's up can come out to the Temple with Tif. I'll stay here."
"Oh, no you won't,"said Tifa taking him by the arm. "You're coming with me. I'm not gonna leave Vampire Boy out here with the tough men! And you're not gonna let 2 helpless damsels go off all alone are you?" she batted her eyelashes at him.
"Even though you aren't exactly helpless, you still are damsels, and I will have to come with you I guess. Good thing everyone else is awake already. Come on out guys."
Barret, Cid, Cait Sith, Red XII all came out from the men's tent. It was obvious from the looks on their faces that they had been listening ever since Aeris had left.
"All right guys! Let's go!" Even at 2 AM, Yuffie seemed extremely cheery.
"Thank you Vincent." Tifa quickly kissed him on the cheek, then looked away blushing. He didn't react for a minute, and Tifa was all but ready to run out after Yuffie and the others and avoid Vincent for the rest of her life.
However, eventually Vincent responded by slowly grabbing her hand and gently rubbing the top of it.
Tifa was speechless and could only look at her hand. With his hand on top of it. With their hands together.
"Come on Tif. Let's go spy on Cloud and Aeris."
There it was again.
Tif.
Vincent was surprised at himself for that sudden display of emotion. Grabbing her hand had been mostly reflex, but rubbing it hadn't been. He searched his thought to try and see why he was happy, but he couldn't concentrate because he kept thinking of Tifa.
Suddenly, it hit him.
He loved Tifa.
He looked down at the innocent young girl walking next to him, her small hand enveloped in his.
Vincent Valentinedreaded wielder of Cerberus, red-cloaked, disappearing who-knows-what who turned into various creatures when angered was in love.
And not only with a woman a regular human woman but a soft, brown-eyed, fist-fighting, human woman.
And he knew he was in trouble.