Title: Beneath the Blood Red Light
Author: Valk
Rating: M
Warnings: Sex, talk of death, mild tweaks to canon
Word Count: 2,750
Prompt: Final Fantasy VII: Tifa/Cloud, Comfort Sex, "Holy failed, and they only have 24 hours to live."
A/N: I doubt this is what the prompter really wanted, but I wrote what came. As failed with the prompt itself, Holy didn't actually come… The Lifestream didn't burst free, either, but it still works with the general theme of the prompt. Hope everyone enjoys!


The Highwind

soared through the air, everyone sitting in silence as they wondered what went wrong. Killing Sephiroth should have stopped Meteor… right? Cloud and Tifa sat in the stable with the chocobo they had on board, the latter gently touching the bird's feathers. Cloud sat on the crate of bird feed in the back with his arms crossed, watching her.

He gave a sigh and stood to walk behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist. She gave a small gasp of surprise and immediately tried to push him back, hissing in the deathly silence, "Cloud! The others are all out there! They'll see us-!"

"I don't care." He nuzzled his chin in her hair, breathing in the battle-worn scent of blood and gore stained on her scraps of clothing mixed with her unique smell. "Let them see. I'd hate myself forever if we died without you knowing how I feel… How I've always felt."

She gasped against his chest. That night… She gave a small sigh of relief and fell back into him. It hadn't just been about the sex. His words—or attempts at them—had made her feel safe and willing at the time, but the morning after she had started to doubt it. The timing was a bit too convenient…

It was the night before they ventured into the Northern Crater to find and kill Sephiroth once and for all. Seeing as to how Cloud was the strongest member of their group, there was a high chance he'd be doing most of the fighting against him—as he had indeed done—and an equal chance he might not have come out of there alive. It's only natural he'd be afraid and want comfort.

But now, as death loomed overhead in the form of burning iron and nickel, she began to wonder. Was this just the same instance? Did he just want comfort? Could Cloud really be that shallow? She didn't think so. He'd always been one of the strongest and most resilient men she'd ever known. Even as his mind had shattered, he still went on strong… with her help, he'd insisted.

Slowly, she turned around in his arms to face him and set her palms on either side of his face. Soft and smooth, she realized. Even with all the time spent in a cave, fighting battle after battle, he still had a clean shaven face. Did mako stunt facial hair growth? Who could say? She couldn't remember hearing of any famous SOLDIERs with beards or moustaches.

She touched her forehead to his and whispered, "Cloud… What do you mean, 'How you feel'?"

He swallowed his spit and shook his head, realizing there was no point in holding back anymore. Even if she rejected him, they'd be dead soon enough and his pain of denial would fade. Gently, he nuzzled her nose with his and, with closed eyes, said, "I love you, Tifa. I always have."

Even though she hoped he'd reply with something to that extent, she couldn't hold back her gasp of surprise when his voice spoke the words. As soon as she regained her senses, she threw her arms around his shoulders and pulled him close. Tears filled her vision and she tried to wipe them away on the fabric of his black sweater.

His arms tightened around her as he ran his knuckles over her back. "Ever since we were kids in Nibelheim… I left home to join SOLDIER so I could be strong enough to protect you… So I could be a man worthy of your love."

"Cloud…" She hiccupped, hating the fact that they could finally be wholly and truly together on the day the planet was condemned to death. "C-can we… Can we go somewhere to be alone? Where there's nobody else?"

Cloud pulled back from their embrace and gently rubbed her tears away with his thumbs before leaning closer and pressing a kiss to her lips. "Of course… I know just the place. No one will find us there. I'll ask Cid to drop us off."

Cloud pulled her through the demolished hallways and over fallen pillars. He kept his hand around hers the whole time they moved, pushing roadblocks out of the way with his free hand. "Come on. Just a little more. We should be at the top soon."

She watched him for a moment before they continued moving. "Cloud…?"

He glanced back over his shoulder as he stepped around a Second Class SOLDIER impaled by a piece of shrapnel. "What is it, Tifa?"

"Why here?"

He smiled, really and truly smiled as he pulled her up the more intact set of stairs leading to the top floor. Gesturing towards the open space where windows once stood, he said, "Look."

She took a few steps closer to the center of the large office and watched the red firelight of Meteor casting its demonic glare upon Gaia. Somehow, when here, so high off the ground—not to mention alone with Cloud—, the light seemed more… beautiful.

He walked up next to her and set a hand around her waist. They watched the red light shift slightly as nature danced with it and, slowly, Cloud leaned closer to whisper in her ear, "Plus, Rufus always pissed me off. It'd be some nice payback to do it on his desk."

She stuttered a laugh at his innuendo and froze, staring at the look in his eye that clearly stated he was serious. Was this really happening? Were they seriously going to have sex? In the rickety remnants of the top floor of the Shin-Ra building?

He shifted around front of her, touched a hand to her chin, and kissed her gently. All the memories of the only night she'd been able to kiss him—all of him—came flooding back. Their hands pulling at each other's clothes, her trying to get that tedious armor off of him, his hands on her bare body, the feeling of pain mixed with ultimate pleasure as he penetrated her virginity, the awakening bliss of their simultaneous orgasms…

She opened her eyes to study him, only to realize that his gloves and cursed armor were already off. She sighed and pulled him closer to her as he ducked down to kiss her neck, slipping one hand down under her short skirt to tease her through her underwear.

A gasp and a shiver escaped her at the same time, his bold foreplay something they hadn't tampered with last time. Her breathing started to increase and her throat felt dry as he pushed her panties aside and delved straight into her. He kept his other hand tight around her back to hold her tight against him as he played at her core. Her throat kept tightening and she pressed her mouth to his, coaxing her tongue into his mouth.

Her oral domination started to fail as he slipped a third finger into the works and he moved his tongue into her mouth, probing as deep as he could. She shuddered against him and dug her hands into his hair for the mere support. His fingers moved faster and faster, prompting her release as soon as possible and she could only wonder how he knew what to do. He had to be as inexperienced as she; maybe less, if you considered what she saw on day-to-day life in the slums.

Her release came and her teeth clamped down on his tongue out of the sheer pleasures coursing through her body. It only lasted a moment, but the aftershock had her almost falling against him to stay vertical. He removed his hand from her folds and wrapped both around her waist to help support her.

As soon as she recovered, she looked up at him in pure happiness, a wide smile on her face as he lifted her and carried her over to the desk. He sat her down and, after removing his shirt and undoing his belts, climbed above her. She shoved her suspenders off and reached down, whipping her top over her head.

He looked at her, the fiery glow making her burgundy eyes shine a brighter red, and said in a hushed tone, "Tifa… I want to do this right. If you think I'm moving too fast, just say something, okay?"

She gave a laugh at his seemingly kind gesture. "At this point in the relationship, 'appropriate' consists of flowers and dinner." Pointing up at the sky above them, she finished, "We don't exactly have the luxury of time."

He gave a small laugh of his own as he realized the idiocy in his statement, but raised his eyes back to hers. "Tifa, I love you and I wish I could do more… I left home so I could protect you, but, look, all I did was fail you time and again… Now you're… you're going to die anyway."

"Cloud." She took hold of his chin and turned his gaze back to hers. "This isn't your fault. Meteor… It's all of our fault. We were supposed to fight Sephiroth together and we all failed together. I can die a blessed woman, though, knowing you did everything you did for me. I'll die, here, in this dilapidated building, in your arms."

He thought about her words for a moment and then raised his eyes back to hers, nodding. "We'll die here together. I… couldn't ask for a better way to die than in your arms. I just wish you didn't have to die, too…"

"Cloud…"

He buried his face in her hair, gradually resuming their earlier actions. "Hm?"

"I love you, too. I…" She leaned her head back and arched her back as he started pressing soft kisses to her neck. "I don't feel like I deserve you, though. I was such a stupid girl… I just watched as all the other kids picked on you… I didn't do a thing…"

"No, but you didn't help them, either. It's okay, Tifa. That's in the past."

"Mm… Cloud?"

"Eh?" He shifted down and pulled the belt to her skirt free and whipped it clean off. He bent down and pursed his lips around the nipple of one of her breasts, gently kneading the other with his hand.

Her back arched further into him and she felt herself heat up again. "Mm… What… What do you think… death is like…?"

He raised his head from his task, moving his other hand to take his mouth's place, and ran his tongue over her collarbone before answering, "Seeing as to how it's the Lifestream, I imagine there's a lot of green."

She managed a strangled chuckle and raised her hips off the desk, rubbing her body against his in desperation. He took the hint and moved one hand from her breasts to unfasten his pants. She took over and shoved his pants down, struggling a little around his already fully erect member. Her fingers treaded over him to give a few experimental strokes and she asked in pure curiosity, "Are all SOLDIERs this big?"

He settled down between her thighs and gave his hips a shove to get inside of her. "Why? Do you know anyone else?"

She shoved at his shoulders and gasped as he pushed further into her. "No… I was just wondering if this"—She gasped again—"was natural or if mako had an effect…"

He stopped moving as he got hilt-deep and answered, "As far as I remember, it's natural. But, for all I know, Hojo fucked with my memories more than I can guess."

She pressed her lips to his in a passionate kiss to try to drive away his nightmares. It seemed to work, because he kissed her back and started his hips with a gentle roll. Tifa relaxed as best she could and let herself blend with him, physically and emotionally. Learning from her inexperience last time, she surprised him with her own roll of hips.

As a foolish teenager, she imagined sex to be a horrible act only men enjoyed and forced a woman to participate in; i.e. rape. As she got older and her friends started talking about their boyfriends and what they were doing, she began to get curious. Her memories would drift to the boy who'd lived next door and, when she found herself home alone one day, she'd tried it on herself. Nothing she'd heard of had worked, so she gave up for awhile.

Eventually, not until a few years later and living with Barret in the slums, did she actually succeed in breaking herself. She hadn't tried often, but when she did, she found herself so close, but unable to go all the way.

Now, actually experiencing it with a partner—no, Cloud—she couldn't even begin to describe how she felt. It only took four days since a sort-of confession and they were already having sex for the second time. If she were more conscientious of what she was doing, she'd wonder if maybe they were both just in it for the physical aspect.

"Tifa…" Cloud whispered her name in the darkness, gradually speeding up his actions. "I love you. I know I do. I fell in love with you even before I knew what love was. Whatever happens here, tonight, tomorrow, whenever, I'll always love you…"

Her arms pulled tighter to him as her inner muscles started to squeeze around his length. "Oh, Cloud… I… I just wish… I wish you'd never left home. I wish you'd stayed in Nibelheim. I wish we could have been together without all these battles…"

"Tifa." His tempo increased even more as she started to close around him. "Tifa," he repeated, "You know as well as I do we never would have been together if I hadn't left."

Her head rolled back and she gave a grunt of pleasure at the heat in her stomach contradicting with the cool metal beneath her back. "That's not true… I thought of you every day after we met at the well."

"I only asked you out there to tell you I was leaving. If I hadn't left, we wouldn't have met there."

"Fine. I wish our home was never lost. I wish our parents were still alive, I wish Meteor wasn't coming, I wish you had fulfilled your promise, made SOLDIER, and came home. I wish we could have loved each other in a different place and time…"

"Tifa…" The time for words was over. He spoke all his love for her with every thrust of his body, every touch to her skin, every kiss to her lips. Her body reacted in ways that were so beautiful, he could only tell her by thrusting faster and kissing her longer.

Their bodies reached a simultaneous high and she shattered only seconds before he joined her. They held each other tightly under the bright red sky, loving each other with everything they had. The waves of pleasure consumed them, overtaking them with the need to scream. In the end, neither could hold back and their cries of joy sounded out.

Tifa slumped down and Cloud quickly rolled over to lie back on the desk as she snuggled up against him. He kicked his pants and boxers off the rest of the way as she pressed her forehead into his chest and whispered, "Cloud…? I'm scared…"

He pulled her closer and kissed her head. "So am I."

"Do you think we'll reincarnate together?"

He thought about his answer for a moment and replied, "Honestly? No."

She looked up at him with tears in her eyes and bit her lip. "I see…"

"I think that, since the world is going to be destroyed, we'll spend the rest of eternity together in the Lifestream, free to do as we please."

She smiled amidst her tears. "You really think so?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I never want to let you go, ever again."

"Then don't. We're here, together for such a short time, and yet, together forever."

"Yeah…" He settled down again and kissed her hair. "Tifa…"

She met his eyes without moving too much. "Mm?"

"I love you. I'll find you in the Lifestream."


I was pretty happy with how this one came out. What do you think?

Review, please?

-Valk