Next chapter! This chapter is a bit more intense. So get ready for it!

Enjoy!

Cloud came back on Fenrir after running some errands for the village folks. He saw her walking around the town in her Sunday dress that he bought for her. She looked gorgeous with that knee high floral dress. She saw him and shyly waved at him making his heart skip a beat.

"Strange." Cloud murmured to himself. He drove right by Tifa. "Hey, Tifa."

"Cloud, where have you been?" Tifa smiled as usual.

Cloud was taken aback. He wasn't sure whether her smile was a good sign or a bad one. "Sorry, but I was running some errands for the village folks. I didn't mean to leave you alone like that."

Tifa smiled and looked at the ocean. "It's alright. I was able to reorganize my thoughts. Plus I met the village folks, they're really nice people."

Cloud smiled slightly. "That's good to hear. Hop on, I'll take you back."

Tifa quickly mounted the bike and he drove them back to their little hut. As Tifa got off, Cloud opened the compartments to his swords. Tifa watched as he grabbed what seems like a small present from one of the slots. She looked at the swords he has in there. They were all made specifically for him. It made her think back to when Kadaj and the gang came to attack them. Then she realized something and gasped.

Cloud turned quickly to look at her. "What's wrong?"

Tifa blushed and waved her hands frantically. "Ah, nothing. Sorry, I was just thinking of something."

Cloud closed the compartments and turned completely to her. "What were you thinking of?"

Tifa smiled sheepishly. "I just realized I haven't told Hunter and Elena that I'm out."

Cloud smiled. "You should probably call them. They'll probably be worried."

Tifa smiled. "Yeah. I'll go call them right now." She quickly ran inside the house while Cloud watched her. He smiled and shook his head and followed after.

As he stepped in, he can hear her pacing back and forth upstairs. "Hey, Hunter. Can you let Elena know that the shop will be closed for a few days? Sorry I couldn't let you know earlier. Something happened suddenly, but I'm alright...I don't know when I'll be back. Maybe a couple days. What was that?...uh…yeah, I'm with Cloud…But how do you know that?...Yuffie? How did she know?... Okay…I guess….What was that? Oh right. You have the keys right? It's in my desk in the right drawer. It's in an envelope with your name on it. Can you give Elena her pay as well?...Thanks. I'll let you know when I'm back. Remember to lock the door on your way out….Okay….okay….sure…thanks for doing that. I'll see you guys soon. Bye."

Cloud couldn't help but grin at her conversation. He set the present down on the table and waited for her to come downstairs. He went to the kitchen and took out some food for dinner. As he was setting it, Tifa came downstairs confused.

"Hey, Cloud. Did you tell Yuffie we'd be out?"

Cloud nodded. "Yeah, I told everyone."

Tifa's eyes widened. "Everyone?"

Cloud sneaked a peak at her and nodded. "Yeah, everyone."

"When?"

"The first night that we got here."

"But I was with you the whole time."

"When you were asleep."

Tifa's mouth opened, but nothing came out of her. Cloud picked up the chopsticks, grabbed a piece of meat, and put it inside of her mouth. Tifa jumped in reaction while Cloud chuckled. "I thought maybe you wanted me to feed you."

Tifa blushed. "Vhy vould I vant taht?" Tifa spoke as she chewed.

Cloud smiled. "Come on, let's eat."

As they were finishing dinner, Tifa started to stare at Cloud. Cloud looked up from his plate and stared at her as well.

"Is something the matter, Tifa?" He spoke as he raised his glass of water to his mouth.

"Do you want to have sex with me?" Tifa spoke calmly.

Cloud spurt out the water and coughed violently. Tifa stared calmly as he wiped himself with a towel. "Why did you suddenly ask that? You're not drunk, are you? I don't remember buying any alcohol."

Tifa only stared at him. "Well, do you?"

Cloud gaped at her random question. "Well," he started coughing and cracking his neck. He wasn't sure what to say. "Um…I…well..um…eventually?"

"Then, should we? We're both adults and the kids aren't around."

Cloud was shocked to hear these words coming out of her mouth. "Um…what?"

Tifa stood up and climbed up the ladder gesturing Cloud to follow behind her. Cloud wasn't sure what to do, so he sat there for a few seconds trying to think what is going on in her mind. In the end, he gave up and followed her. She was already sitting on the bed waiting for him. Cloud wasn't sure if he should sit down or not, so he stood there staring at her.

"Tifa, are you alright? Did you get poisoned?"

Tifa shook her head. "I'm fine. Come sit down, Cloud."

Cloud hesitated, but he eventually sat down beside her. Tifa scooted closer to him. "Touch me, Cloud. Make me feel your love."

Cloud stared at Tifa. He raised his hand up to her face and brushed it slightly. He pulled her chin towards him as he set his lips upon hers. But then, he stopped and backed away. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I can't love you like this."

"Then how will you love me, Cloud? How exactly are you going to love me?"

Cloud turned to her. The calm face she had on before was now enraged. Cloud opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out of him. Tifa took in a deep breath. "Cloud, do you see now? You can never love me the way you said you would. So why would you force yourself on me?"

As Tifa stood up to leave, Cloud grabbed her arm. "Tifa."

Tifa looked at him. With her other hand, she brushed his hand away. "If you think by forcing yourself to love me will pay your debts, then you can stop. Your debt has been paid a long time ago. I don't need this from you. You're free to do as you wish."

Tifa slid off the bed and walked around him only for him to pull her back into his arms. Tifa suddenly felt her face being lifted up as his lips aggressively touched hers. She tried to push him back only for him to pin her down underneath him. He kissed her gently, but aggressively. He held her hands down as she tried to fight him off. She felt his tongue touch hers and take her breath away. By the time he backed away, she was gasping for air.

Cloud smiled as he lingered on top of her. "Tifa, please don't tempt me next time. I can't say for sure that I will be able to force myself not to ravage you."

Tifa bit her lips. "You…"

"To answer your questions," Cloud cut her off as he brushed her hair from her face. "I do love you. And I will show you just how much I love you. I will show you what kind of love I want to give you. I know you think I am forcing myself to be the man you wanted me to be, but it's quite the opposite. I'm trying not to force myself on you, because I respect you. I want you to open yourself up to me. I want you to be able to feel that I am serious, and I won't hurt you anymore. That what I am doing now is not so that I can fill up that void you think I have." He wiped her lips with his thumb. "I want you to be able to give yourself to me. And I'll wait for you, no matter how long it takes. Even if it doesn't seem true, I'll be waiting." Cloud kissed her lips once more before getting up from the bed. "You should go take a bath. I'll clean up." With that, he climbed down the ladder leaving Tifa breathless.

Later, as they were settling in for the night, Tifa felt his body temperature warming her. She can hear his soft breathing as they lay there watching the ceiling window where the stars glowed brightly.

"Cloud, are you asleep?" Tifa spoke softly.

"No, not yet." Cloud shifted his body slightly. "What's the matter?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

Tifa hesitated. "When did you first realized that you loved me?"

Cloud was quiet, then he sighed. "I was in love with you when we first met."

Tifa suddenly blushed. "What? That young?"

Cloud cleared his throat. "Yeah, I wasn't able to confess to you at the time. I felt like I wasn't good enough for you, especially after that incident."

"Is…is that why you left?"

Cloud sighed. "Yes. I left so I could become a hero in your eyes. I needed to prove that I was worthy of you."

Tifa turned her whole body to him. "Why did you think you weren't good enough?"

Cloud sighed. "Because I was weak. I couldn't save you many times. I left so that I could become a hero and save you whenever you needed me to. But in the end, it's always you who saved me. It made me realize that the more I try to prove myself, the more I will become a failure. That's why I wasn't able to show myself to you in Nibelhelm before Sephiroth went crazy."

"You were there?"

Cloud chuckled. "Yeah, I was there. I was the soldier who never took off his helmet."

Tifa giggled. "That completely makes sense now."

Cloud chuckled. "Yeah, I was so pathetic."

Tifa shook her head gently. "No, you're not. You saved me many times, probably just not the way you wanted to. But you did. You always came when I needed you most. Somehow, you were able to do just that."

"But I still disappointed you. Made you lose hope."

"Well, yeah. There's that too."

Cloud smiled. "Can I tell you something?"

"What?"

Cloud hesitated for a moment. "I did love Aerith." Cloud spoke honestly. Tifa was silent. Cloud held her hand to reassure her. "But not like that. At the time, I was amazingly confused. Somehow, Zack's thoughts and feelings were infused in me. It made me believe that I was deeply in love with Aerith. She even mentioned that I was very similar to Zack. When I fell into the lifestream, it all made sense. I loved her, but not the way I thought I did. It was you all along. It's always been you in my heart."

Tifa blushed at his sincere confession. "I see."

Cloud shifted his body so that he'd be leaning over her. "Tifa, I love you with all my heart. Always have and always will. Will you believe and accept me? Even after all that I've put you through?"

Tifa looked away and took a deep breath. "I don't know…I'm still so confused by all of this."

Cloud smiled and kissed her forehead. "It's alright. I'm not rushing you. Go to sleep now." Cloud settled back in.

The next day, Cloud was feeling satisfied. Maybe after last night, Tifa will be willing to open up to him more. If he had known this would work, he would've confessed to her ages ago. He stood on the beach watching the waves roll in and out.

Mira came by and joined Cloud. "Good morning, Cloud."

Cloud turned to her and smiled. "Good morning, Mrs. Arlington."

She poked him with her cane. "I told you to call me Mira."

Cloud smiled as he rubbed his arm. "Sorry, Mira."

"Let me guess, you got lucky last night."

Cloud smiled embarrassed. "It's not like that. We just had a talk."

Mira eyed him devilishly. "Right, a talk."

Cloud grinned. "Nothing happened…yet."

Mira laughed. "Alright, alright. I'll believe you this time."

Mira sighed and stared at the ocean. "I bet you'll be able to let go now, huh?"

Cloud stared at the horizon as well. "Let what go?"

"The other woman."

"Hmm." Cloud thought to himself. "What's there to let go of? No matter where I am, no matter what I do, she'll always be a part of me."

"Why do you keep holding onto the past?"

"It's because of her that I'm where I am right now."

"But you have Tifa now. Why do you still need her?"

"Tifa is Tifa. Yes, she's the one that I love. But Aerith is special to me. And I can't just forget her like that. Not after all we've been through together. She holds a special connection to me."

Cloud and Mira suddenly hear something drop behind them. They turned around to see Tifa with wide eyes and a pale face. Tears running down her face as she stared at him with disbelief.

"Tifa." Cloud spoke.

Tifa jerked back and quickly ran away. Cloud was about to run after her when Mira stopped him. "If you want to be able to live happily with the woman you love, you need to be able to let go of the past. If not, you'll hurt her more every time."

Cloud stared at Mira who silently walked away. He looked at the bags that Tifa dropped. He picked it up and headed to the house. Once inside, he put the bags on the table and he sat on a chair with his head hung low. "What am I doing wrong?"

"You're doing everything wrong."

Cloud opened his eyes to see a familiar bright place. He can feel someone sitting behind him. "I don't understand."

"Just like the old lady said. You need to let us go."

Cloud sensed a female presence sitting on his right. "But, if I do, that means I'm choosing to forget about you."

"Stupid Cloud. You're not forgetting us. You'll never forget us."

"In order to live for the future, you need to let go of the past, Cloud." She spoke. "You need to forgive yourself."

Cloud blinked. "Didn't I?"

The male voice spoke. "If you did, you wouldn't still be talking with us."

Cloud turned around, but he was brought back to reality. "Live for the future, let go of the past."

Tifa ran for what seemed like miles before she realized she was lost in the forest. Tears streaming down her face as she recollected what she had heard before.

"But Aerith is special to me. And I can't just forget her like that. Not after all we've been through together. She holds a special connection to me."

Tifa wiped her tears away. "I knew it. I can never replace you." Tifa couldn't wipe her tears fast enough, but she knew she had to go. There was no more point in her staying. She continued to walk in the direction she thought they came from.

Cloud tried to follow in her footsteps, but no matter how much he ran, he couldn't find her. "Tifa!" Cloud yelled as loud as he could in the darkening forest. He had spent almost the whole day looking for her. He knew she didn't know the way out, he would've seen her when he drove out of the forest into the desert. Just as the setting sun disappeared and storm clouds gathered, Cloud heard a soft whimper. He quickly ran towards to source to find Tifa crouched down beside a tree.

"Tifa!" Cloud ran to her as fast as he could. Just as he grabbed onto her and pulled her to her feet, she pushed him away. It began to rain.

"Leave me alone!" Tifa screamed.

Cloud was shocked, but knew that was bound to happen. "Tifa, I can explain."

"Save it! I don't need any more of your explanations. I'm done. Take me home." Tifa cried as she looked down, letting the rain hide her tears.

"Tifa."

"I can't do this! I knew it. I knew that you still loved her, and yet you lied to me. You gave me hope that this was going to work. That what you had for me is the truth. You lied to me!"

"Tifa, I didn't lie to you. I love you, Tifa."

"NO!" Tifa screamed. "I won't accept it! I'm not about to become your rebound so that you can forget about her. I'm not that low and desperate as you think I am."

Cloud was shocked to hear what Tifa thought about all this. He wasn't able to say anything. It wasn't true, but he couldn't find any words to console her.

"We're done, Cloud. No more. I want to go home. Please, take me home, Cloud." Tifa cried as she fell to her knees and begged him. Cloud could do nothing but watch her cry in front of him.

Why Mira? Why you gotta be so damn nosy?! Leave them alone! LOL

Sorry but I just couldn't let it end just like that. But don't worry, it'll all work out. ;D