Author's Note: Hello, everyone. I've decided to tap into one of my favorite fandoms and write something new. I roleplay as Tifa Lockhart on tumblr and through the years, I've come up with a list of things that I wish had been developed more between Cloud and Tifa. Of course, I am also a dedicated fan of them as a couple, so I will be sharing how I feel they would reach that point in their relationship. I already have a handful of drabbles finished, so I will hopefully be updating on a routine basis until they are all finished.

These are not in any particular order, as I write them when I feel in the mood for a specific setting/situation.

I hope you will enjoy what I come up with. Let's begin, shall we?

"You learned to run from what you feel, and that's why you have nightmares. To deny is to invite madness. To accept is to control."
― Megan Chance, The Spiritualist

She was bathing in a sea of emerald, floating like a feather in the wind on a breezy spring morning.

Absolutely weightless.

Absolutely free.

There was no rhyme or reason to it all; why she was floating or where she was going. All she could focus on was how deep the green could do as she stared. It was hauntingly familiar, but in such a way that she wasn't frightened or worried. Just merely accepting that it was reminiscent of something and moving on.

Until she began to feel something fall onto her. It was a drop at first, a searing scarlet liquid. Glancing down at her palm where it landed, she examined it with curious eyes. Another fell then. And another. And another. Soon, she was drenched in the iron-scented rain, no longer able to see that beautiful sea.

Instead, she could only see blood. Hear screams of horror and the light around her fading into oblivion. At the very cusp, she felt a stinging sensation at her chest, her hands moving to try and sooth the flesh there. But there was no reprieve. The pain increased to a point where she fell to her knees, coughing more of that foul liquid. It was everywhere, staining her clothing and hair.

Before she could succumb to the horror surrounding her, she spotted a small orb of light. It was drifting in mid-air, as if in slow motion. It beckoned her to follow it. To touch it. Feeling renewed energy, she got to her foot and allowed herself to gravitate towards it. The walk felt endless as the rain continued to pour. Her feet sloshed in her boots, resisting the current. Holding a hand out, she so nearly grabbed hold of the ball of energy. The instant of contact made, she was then blasted with what felt like a powerful wind. She shielded her eyes, holding her breath and trying to keep upright. When it finally stopped, her eyes opened and refocused.

All she could do was scream.

"Tifa! Tifa?! Wake up!" Someone's voice was calling her through the void, pulling her away from the horrendous vision. Yanking her out of the depths of her dreams. Waking up with a started, she could still hear the screams.

It wasn't until she met the concerned and questioning eyes of Cloud Strife that she realized they had been her own.

His hands were large and warm as they clung to her trembling shoulders, his lips in a hard line as his hair shimmered like gold in the pale moonlight that poured in from the window by her bed. She was disoriented, squinting as she tried to spot more of that rain. She was cleaned and dry, outside of the dampness of sweat at her brow. When her lips parted, she surprised herself with how hoarse she sounded. "C-Cloud…?"

It appeared that his name on her lips broke the concentrated spell he was under, his face softening. Those deep pools of azure widened briefly before he sprung backwards as if she was made of flames and he had been burned. Moving a hand to the back of his neck, she noticed how disheveled he was; old grey shirt rumpled and sticking out of one of side of his baggy black pajama pants. "I, uh, heard you crying out down the hall and came in here to check…"

She felt the heat licking at her cheeks long before words formed in her head. "I…I'm sorry…"

The air was pregnant with questions. As he awkwardly stood at the side of her bed, his eyes darting between her sitting frame and the door, the brunette got the sense that he didn't know what to do now that she was awake.

"Did you…want to…" he tried to ask, swallowing before continuing, "…talk about it?" She couldn't discern whether or not he was asking out of a feeling of obligation or if he genuinely wanted to know what plagued her slumber.

"What did you hear?" she asked too fast, growing embarrassed as his eyes took an interest in the corner of her ash-grey comforter.

A heavy sigh later, he brushed back some of his golden spikes and tilted his head to the side. "You said her—Aerith's – name." The way he corrected himself with their departed friend's name made her heart clench. Some wounds were never going to fully heal.

She debated for a few seconds whether or not she should divulge. The flower maiden that died before her time haunted all of them. Tifa knew that she was not the only one who suffered greatly from the loss. Cloud looked like a lost child, his skin like alabaster under the moon's rays as he moved from side to side, shifting his weight uncomfortably.

The silence caused her to open her mouth to fill the void, "It was fine at first. I felt like I was in the Lifestream, just floating along, you know? But then…it turned horrible and it started to rain…" Cloud finally decided to take a seat, the end of her bed sinking under his weight as he turned to look at her. It didn't deter her from continuing, though. Her knees moved upwards, arms wrapping around her knees as she lost herself in the memory. "I was drowning in it; I couldn't breathe or see anything but the blood. And then…I was following this light. Something flew at me and I had to close my eyes, but when I opened them again…"

Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks, spilling onto her bed as she tried to avoid his gaze.

"Tifa…" His voice was as broken as she felt, a mere whispered apology. But she didn't want his sympathy, so she pressed on.

"When I opened them again, I saw her. She was so pretty, just like we knew her. But…then…" Then, her flesh melted from her bones, her clothing becoming waterlogged and hair thinning. Her mouth, which was once known for her jokes and laughter, was now dull and lifeless. The eyes of endless emerald that once held such innocence and a wealth of knowledge and curiosity were sinking into the depths of sockets, leaving nothing but blank holes behind. By the time Cloud woke her up, Aerith Gainsborough was only a skeleton with a pink ribbon dangling from a few rotten strands of brittle hair.

The words wouldn't come out.

Something warm brushed along her hands, bringing her attention to the blond across from her. His eyes – so penetrating and full of regrets – gazed at her with remorse and understanding. A tenderness resonated there; something she had never seen from him in the past. It slowed her heaving heart, fingertips lightly grazing over her knuckles.

He was a breath of fresh air in her darkest hour. A reminder that unlike her friend, she was alive and breathing. She was there, inches away from him. It was so rare for Tifa to display any sort of weakness. She was the rock that held everyone together since Sephiroth's inevitable demise. In moments like this, she felt like she was eight years old again, trapped in her sadness and isolated from the world.

Only Cloud could ever be allowed to see her so broken. So scared.

It was in that touch that she knew he was there for her. He understood what she couldn't say because he saw it himself when he closed his eyes at night. They were both grieving the loss of someone so special to them. As her hand moved away from her kneecap, her own fingers curling around his, Tifa wondered if maybe now they could grieve together.