Endings of a Broken Heart
Author's Notes: A quick update because my lovely Muse visits frequently. If you didn't check out chapter 1, it has been re-edited and posted.
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VII and all associated characters. I own nothing but the plot.
Full Summary: Here is a story of two people who came to be together because their dreams of love didn't work out. What they didn't know was that despite the tests of faith, the confusion of who to love, the awkwardness of being together, and the painful crushing of dreams was that they were really meant for each other. That their dreams were really just that, dreams. They were simple fantasies and the objects in them were only covering up who their souls were searching for and haven't found.
She was like a breath of fresh air. She was like sunshine to the world, at least his world, and she looked beautiful with her hair blowing in the wind sitting next to the open window.
He has to snap out of it.
He gets out of the car after parking it and heads to his locker with Aerith. Upon going to his locker though, Zack pounces on him. Zack's always been his male best friend. He was a year older than he was but they had still both been in diapers when they met. They'd grown up together and he doesn't think there is anyone in the world who doesn't know him better than Zack.
Zack doesn't stay long. Cloud thinks that Zack just comes to bug him early in the morning to say hi. He is always called away by some other girl, who Zack tells him is his best female friend. How Zack could possibly have a friend that was female was beyond him. With all the girls he'd dated, Cloud didn't think that Zack was capable of resisting a woman.
But he guesses that Zack's other best friend must be something special or ugly if Zack won't date her. Since they sort of ran in different circle of friends, Zack and Cloud have decided to keep those friends from those circles separate. After all, Zack was on the football team while Cloud was on the swim team.
Cloud only has two classes with Aerith. Today was his lucky day, the first class was one he shared with her. He can tell it's going to be a good day.
Swimming was a joy to him. He felt weightless and powerful and fast. It felt as close to flying as he could ever imagine. Cloud takes an inhale before diving back into the water. A completed stroke and a sequence of a kick and his face makes it back out of the surface of the water for another inhale. It is repeated over and over until he reaches the wall and does a flip turn.
His heart is pounding and he is gasping for breath at the end of the drill. But he feels light and free and he enjoys the exercise. He is distracted in shaking his hair from the excess water that it takes him a moment to realize there were toes in his face.
Cloud's clear sky eyes follows the path of pale unpainted toes to slim ankles. He tilts his now redefined blonde hair head up and follows the fit calves and slightly scarred knees to luscious thighs and a black one piece bathing suit. He only quickly skims the curves of her body, her breasts shouting loudly that she was female although Cloud could tell it was slightly muted by the covering of her bathing suit.
His eyes finally reach pale pink lips in a soft smile and ruby hued eyes looking down on him. Her hands on her hips and one of her hands clutched a swimming cap, her hair bound high upon head in a bun.
"Hi!" The girl in front of him says. She gives a gesture and Cloud moves back to allow her to sit on the edge of the pool and dip her legs in the water. "I've been given knowledge that you're Cloud."
His eyebrows go up at that and somehow she knows his unspoken question.
"Some of the guys on the swim team told me you were swimming on my way here. I thought I'd take a risk and come practice on my break anyways."
"Why would it be considered a risk?" He replies, his voice soft and low.
"Well they said something about you being shy and a little moody about sharing your water." She says and he can hear the laughter in her tone. He dips his head to hide the small twitch on his lips.
"You swim?" He asks to divert the subject.
"I'm on the girls swim team." She answers. "I'm Tifa." She says and a long strand of raven black hair slips as she reaches out with her hand. Cloud watches it as it dips into the water a little, the ends fraying before clumping back together.
He takes her hand. "Cloud."
And suddenly he knows who this girl is. The girls and boys swim team went together to competitions and they even swam right after each other. Tifa was the girl every guy on his team talked about, although Cloud had never really paid attention. That and he never bothered to even look at the girls swim team members, he had always been too focused on what he had been there to do: to swim and win.
But now, sitting here with her, he could remember vividly snippets of his friends' comments on her. Beautiful. Sexy. And a lot of talk about her breasts. He inwardly grimaces when he starts fantasizing about her chest, he doesn't want to be like the other guys.
Her voice pulls Cloud out of his thoughts. "So do you mind sharing the pool with me?"
"I heard you're the best on the girls' team." He blurts. That was one thing his friends talked about that was safe to say.
Cloud watches, slightly amazed, at the dusting of pastel pink that blooms on her cheeks. She laughs modestly afterwards, saying that she was sure there are better on her team.
"Let's race." He tells her. She nods and she slips under the marked rope that serves to be a divider between lanes. On a count of three, they burst into speed.
If he concentrated hard enough, Cloud could make out the splashes of water that Tifa moved away from her as she swam past his own torrent. They do a flip turn and they swim back to where they had started.
Cloud breaks out of the water's surface first and turns amazed when Tifa does as well. They had just tied. Only one other person in the entire state could beat him in swimming and that was his rival in another school. But Tifa had just tied with him!
He stares openly in shock while she smiles.
"Well I better get going. My break is almost over. I'll see you around, Cloud!" Tifa says and she climbs up over the edge and waves goodbye to him before she disappears into the girl's locker room.
Cloud tells the story of meeting Tifa to Aerith. She only laughs and giggles and proclaims that he has a crush on the raven haired girl. He vehemently denies it. After all, he harbors feelings for her and not Tifa. Aerith brushes aside his denials, saying in a sing song voice that he was just too embarrassed to admit it.
When Zack asks him if he wants to go to the gym this weekend, Cloud accepts. Halfway through their shoulder work outs when he's spotting Zack, he tells him about Tifa.
"Tifa?"
"Yeah, you know her?"
"KNOW HER? She's my best friend!"
That was a shocker. He had thought Zack's best friend was going to be ugly or something awful. Zack was pretty naïve about the people he trusted and liked. He thought his best friend was going to be some shallow stereotypical girl.
He doesn't say anything and Zack takes the incentive to babble. "This is great! Now we can ALL hang out! My two best friends!"
Eventually, Zack badgers him into inviting Aerith too for their first group get together. She was the missing link after all. Zack hadn't met her.
And the story unfolds like that.
Author's Notes: I'm sorry it took so long to update this story. I've been so busy reading and having fun and enjoying my summer. But I promise to be updating as frequently as I can pump out these stories.
Also I'm looking for a BETA. If you're interested, let me know!
And as always please review!
