Disclaimer: Not my characters.
AN: I haven't updated in a while, but there's only 4 more chapters. XD Nearly done! I'm sorry this is short, I'm on holiday so have little time for writing.


Tifa woke up early the next morning to find warm arms wrapped around her waist, her body pressed close to a man's chest. She smiled slightly as she remembered what had happened yesterday. She'd finally told Rude the truth, and he'd understood. He'd held her to him and stroked her hair, letting her cry for what had happened in a way Cloud never had.

It had felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He used the opportunity to tell her a little of his past, and she told him about hers. The town that was now destroyed in which she had grown up, the reasons for which she had fought, about the blonde who had held her heart. In the end she had fallen asleep against him in exhaustion, and he had stayed where he was in order to not wake her.

She tilted her head awkwardly to look at him, smiling at the peaceful expression on his face as he rested. She didn't want to disturb him, so she turned carefully and then leant closer to his face, the way she always had with Cloud. No response. She was here as his lover, so no one would be surprised to find the two of them in the same bed. That wasn't the problem. The only difficulty was that she felt he would want to wake up before he was late.

"Rude?" She questioned in a singsong voice, a smile on her lips. He didn't move. She leant closer, briefly brushing her lips against his. The other man's eyes opened immediately and he looked up at her with a confused grin on his face.
"Morning Tifa." He reached down and gently stroked one hand across her stomach. "Morning brat."

She beamed back at him. That kiss had felt right, and he had been being so good to her. Since she had arrived she had wondered if she would be able to one day feel something for him, and right now that looked like a definite possibility. She cuddled closer to him, resting her head on his chest as his strong hands caressed her back.

"You're so warm." She whispered, feeling safe as he stroked her hair. After months of worry this was so relaxing that she could feel herself drifting off again. He laughed softly, leaning forwards to kiss her forehead. She tilted her head up to his and kissed him gently.

He kissed back, more tenderly than she was used to.
"Tifa, I have to go to work." He slid out from between her arms, still in the same immaculate suit as last time. She smiled, sitting up in the bed and looking at him happily.
"Alright." She couldn't hold him back; he was already helping her as much as he could. "Hurry back." She realised she'd miss him, and not just because she would be lonely without company.

He nodded, and headed out to work. She sat in the bed, thinking of how warm and secure she had felt that night. She had found someone who knew how Loz had attacked and hurt her, and had not abandoned her, but had instead offered her comfort, something even her old lover, the man she believed to be her soul mate, had denied.

As she got up, awkward now with the vast swelling of her body, she realised something. She could love this strange, silent man who'd been so kind to her. She laid back down on the bed, curling up against the warm patch his body had left.