Author's Note: More sexy content! I hope it's not complete crap and any suggestions to improve it are appreciated! :D Hope everyone found it okay after the rating change and I hope everyone's still enjoying it!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, I am paid nothing, but I enjoy playing with FFVII's characters! :D

Chapter 13

Tifa yawned and stretched before turning her head and smiling. She was still in Loz's arms and it felt so good. She carefully rolled over so her head was resting on his hard chest. She let her hands absently trace the muscles on his abdomen and up along his chest. She looked up when she felt his chest begin to shake.

"That tickles," he said with a smile, his eyes still closed.

"Ah, so you're ticklish," she said with smirk. "I'll remember that."

"I'm sure you will," he answered. He finally opened his eyes and looked at the clock beside the bed. "It's seven-thirty p.m. We should probably get going if you want to get back to Seventh Heaven to meet up with Cloud and Vincent."

Tifa sighed. "You're right. Time to get up and return to the real world. But first, a shower."

Loz watched Tifa sit up and stretch again. He liked the way her dark hair contrasted her pale skin as it fell like a curtain down her back. She pushed herself to the edge of the bed and got to her feet. She pulled one of the sheets from the bed to wrap it around herself before walking around the large bed towards the door. He rolled onto his side so he could continue watching her.

"There are towels in the cupboard behind the bathroom door," he said when she reached the bedroom door.

She smiled over her shoulder at him. "Thanks Loz."

He smiled and nodded. Once she was out of sight he rolled onto his back again. He smiled to himself as he remembered how much he had enjoyed playing a different game with Tifa. She was so much fun! He could fight with her and get a great workout, she could ride bikes with the best of them, and she was fun to be with during sex. His smiled became a playful smirk when he heard the water start to run. He quickly pushed himself to his feet, not bothering to cover himself up, and padded over to the bathroom. He knocked on the door, noting that the old him would have just walked in while his new sense of self demanded he follow the rules of manners and wait to be invited in.

"Loz?" she called.

"Yeah, it's me," he said through the door. "Can I come in?"
"Sure," she answered as he opened the door.

The room was already beginning to steam up and was quite warm. He stepped closer to the tub and could see the outline of her body through the semi opaque shower curtain.

"What's up?" she asked from the other side of the curtain.

"I just wanted to know if you would like some company?" he asked with smirk.

"Huh, I thought you'd never ask," she said teasingly. "Come on in. There's plenty of room!"

He gently pulled the curtain back and stepped in. She turned and faced him, smiling as she handed him the soap.

"You can wash my back," she said as she turned away from him.

"You got it," he said as he began to lather up his hands.

Once they were soapy enough, he gently ran them over her back. She sighed and leaned into his touch. He pulled her back against his chest and let his hands travel around to the front of her body. He trailed his soapy hands over her breasts and down her flat stomach, over her hips and along the tops of her thighs before cupping her sex. He gently rubbed her with his hand before moving back up her body.

She turned around and looked up at him. "You are a tease."

He smirked as his eyes twinkled. "I'm just making sure you get cleaned up."

"Ah, well two can play that game," she said as she took the soap from his hands and turned him so he was facing away from her.

She carefully lathered her hands up before rubbing them along his back and around his sides so she could trail her hands over his chest and trace them down over the chiseled muscle of his abdomen. She caressed his thighs before moving her hands to grasp his length already hardening as she lightly stroked it.

"You're really good at that," he said as he looked over his shoulder at her. He turned to face her and lifted one of her legs as he pulled her closer to him. "Let's play, Tifa."

She smiled and gasped when he entered her body. "God, you feel so good."

He pressed her up against the wall of the shower for leverage as he continued his hard upwards thrusts into her. She held onto his shoulders and kept her eyes locked with his. He didn't look away from her either. He just kept watching her as they moved together. The floor of the tub was getting slippery as the soap ran off their bodies and it became more difficult for Tifa to keep her balance. Sensing her instability, Loz picked her up and wrapped both of her legs around his waist. He supported her weight with one arm wrapped around her waist while his other hand braced their combined weight against the wall.

Tifa gasped at the new and more intense sensations their new position created, her climax building even more quickly than it had already been doing. She moaned and threw her head back as the waves of pleasure crashed over her nerves and slammed into her without warning. The effect of her intense, seemingly unending orgasm was too much for Loz. The sight of her body and the physical sensations he was feeling inside her pushed him over the edge as well. They both panted as they recovered from their mutual satisfaction and Tifa even laughed softly as she let her legs slide down until they touched the floor of the tub.

Loz was puzzled by her laughter. "What's so funny?"

She looked up at him and smiled. "You seem to know me in a way no one else does. And it's just so unexpected given our history."

He nodded. "Yeah."

She stepped into the flow of the water and began cleaning herself off again. She turned to face him as she lathered her hair up with his shampoo. "You know, your vocabulary seems to go from extensive to limited really quickly."

"I wasn't much of a talker," he admitted. "Kadaj was always the mouth in the group. Yazoo and I didn't really get a lot of opportunities to speak, so I just got use to having concise answers for everything."
She nodded as she considered his answer. "Do you ever hate him? Kadaj, I mean."

Loz frowned and watched her rinse her hair. He shrugged and shook his head. "No, not really. Why?"

"Well, he seemed really angry all the time and Marlene said that when she was with you, he was mean to you," Tifa said.

"Aren't siblings supposed to tease each other?" he asked.

Tifa smiled and shrugged. "I guess so. So, do you miss them?"

"Who? Kadaj and Yazoo?" he asked. "Now that I remember them, yeah. But it's…different now."

Tifa rinsed the shampoo from her hair and looked up at him. "What's different?"

"Before when we were apart from one another for too long, we began to feel lost," he tried to explain. "Like if I wasn't with them, I didn't feel whole. Now, even though I'm alone, I don't feel lost. I feel lonely, but not lost."
Tifa reached up and touched his cheek. "You don't even have to feel lonely, Loz. Not anymore."

He gently touched the hand on his face and smiled. "Thanks."

She nodded. "Listen, I'm done, so I'm going to dry off and get dressed. You can finish up and I'll meet you in the living room."

"Okay," said as they switched places so he was under the water and she was able to pull to curtain back to step out.

Once he was alone, he absently rubbed the spot when the Shinra doctors had placed the tiny pump beneath his skin. Somehow he had the feeling that his relief from Sephiroth wouldn't last very long. He didn't want Sephiroth with him again. He knew Sephiroth would take Tifa away from him and break her so they could never play again. He had to be strong so he could protect her, but he was at a disadvantage. Even though he was no longer just a remnant of Sephiroth, he was still a piece of him at the core and he knew Sephiroth would find that small piece and use it against him.

He turned his face into the water and allowed it to wash away the tears that always fell too damned easily.

Tifa sat on the couch in the living room as she waited for Loz to finish in the shower. She was flipping through a motorcycle magazine and sighed. She didn't know how he had done it, but Loz had managed to carve out a place in her heart. She smiled to herself and continued to flip through the magazine. She looked up when she heard his heavy footsteps approaching from down the hall. He was wearing a pair of blue jeans with a dark blue t-shirt and a black leather jacket, his silver hair still glistening from the water, yet holding his trademark impossible style.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked.

She smiled and nodded. "I'm ready. So are we taking both bikes?"

"I was thinking we could take one bike," he said. "I kinda wanna see just what kind of power Shinra packs into their bikes."

Tifa laughed and shrugged as she handed him the keys. "Okay."

They left Loz's apartment and made their way down the stairs out into the streets. Loz went to the bike and settled on the machine as he familiarized himself with the controls. As he was doing that, Tifa noticed the glares people threw at him. She had been aware of it for a while, but now she was starting to get irritated. Who were they to judge him? They didn't even know him or the pain he went through! They didn't know what it was like to live as a remnant of Sephiroth with no will of their own! He was trying to make a new life and no one seemed to even care! One man in particular was giving him an intensely venomous stare and Tifa moved to confront him, but stopped when Loz gently grabbed her wrist. She looked at him questioningly.

"I was just…"

He just shook his head. "It's not worth it."

"But…"

"Tifa, they only see one of the men who stole their children," he said.

"Children who still have no one to care for them," she protested. "Instead of wasting all their energy glaring at you, they should be focusing on helping those children find homes!"

Loz sighed and gently pulled her even closer to him. "They don't matter."

"It ticks me off though," she protested.

He smiled sadly. "You know better than anyone that they're right to be scared of me."

She put her hands on both sides of his face and tilted his head so he was looking up at her. "They don't have a reason to scared of you anymore, Loz."

He lifted a hand and touched one of her hands. "Only time will tell. Come on. We should go."

She nodded and climbed on to the back of bike. Instead of resting her hands on his hips as she had the first time she had ridden behind him, she wrapped them around his waist. Once he started the bike and pulled out into the street, she sighed and rested her head on his back. She felt him sigh contentedly before moving one of his hands to cover both of hers where they met at his waist. She felt like no matter what happened, they would all be okay. She felt…safe.

Vincent watched Cloud continuously glance up at the clock. He narrowed his eyes slightly as Cloud moved between looking at the clock and pacing again. "If you are concerned about her, why not just call her, Cloud?"

"Huh?" Cloud asked. He shook his head. "I don't want to bother her. She might not have found him yet."

"I think he will want to be found, Cloud," Vincent said.

"He seems to enjoy the solitude," Cloud pointed out.

"There's a difference between choosing solitude and having it forced upon you," Vincent said. "We both know the difference…and I don't think Loz seeks out the solitude. You have more in common with him than you want to admit, Cloud."

Cloud looked up sharply. "No, I don't."

"You told me you and Loz had made a pact to work together," Vincent said. "You even admire his work on motorcycles and you like his improvements to Fenrir. Why are you holding on to your distrust?"

"Tifa is too kind and is easily being drawn in with his wounded soul act," Cloud said as he glanced out the window. "She'll get hurt."

"His soul really is wounded, Cloud," Vincent said patiently. "It's not an act and you already know this to be true. As for Tifa…you know she can take care of herself. So what's this really all about?"
"This is about Sephiroth taking everything from me," Cloud said as he glared over his shoulder at his friend. "He burned Nibleheim to the ground, he nearly killed Tifa, he killed Aeris, he tried to destroy our planet, he sent his remnants to destroy us, and now he's trying to take my soul from me! He's already taken Tifa and he'll kill her this time! He won't stop until he's destroyed everything."

"Sephiroth hasn't taken Tifa, Cloud," Vincent reminded him. "Tifa went to find Loz. Loz is not Sephiroth."

"He may as well be," Cloud said angrily.

They both turned when they heard a key in the lock. Tifa opened the door and walked in with Loz behind her. She could tell that Cloud and Vincent were in the middle of something when they had walked in just by looking at them. She decided to ignore the tension for the moment and turned to look up at Loz.

"Loz, do you remember Vincent?" she asked gesturing to the ex-Turk.

He nodded slightly. "You rescued brother from Kadaj."

"I'm not your brother," Cloud said as he turned away.

"Sorry," Loz mumbled. "Bad habit."

"Loz, am I right in assuming you have all your memories back?" Vincent asked calmly.

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Then perhaps we should talk?" Vincent suggested. He turned and looked at Tifa. "Would it be alright if Loz and I had a few moments alone?"

She smiled thinly and nodded. "Of course. Cloud and I can wait upstairs."

She smiled reassuringly at Loz before walking out the back door and up the stairs leading toward the apartment above the bar. Cloud followed her, just as eager to find some privacy, as she seemed to be. He shut the door behind them and waited for her to face him. She stubbornly stayed facing away from him, forcing him to make the first move.

"Aren't you even going to look at me?" he finally asked.

She turned and did as he asked. "What the hell goes on in your head, Cloud?"

He was surprised and raised his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"You seemed fine with Loz until we walked in," she said as she folded her arms across her chest. "What changed?"

Cloud clenched his jaw before speaking tightly. "Whether or not he's returned from the Lifestream for some life-fulfilling destiny, he is still a remnant of Sephiroth."

Tifa rolled her eyes. "How many times are we going to have this conversation, Cloud? I can't keep doing this with you!"

"Well, you're going to have to keep doing this as long as you refuse to see the truth, Tifa!" Cloud snapped. "He's dangerous!"

"Yeah? And so are you, in case you forgot!" she snapped back. "Sephiroth could easily use you to kill me and what do you think would give him more satisfaction? Having his remnant kill me, which everyone would expect, or having my childhood friend do his dirty work? Did you ever consider that, Cloud Strife?"

In truth, he actually had not thought of that possibility…and that worried him. "I could never do that."

Tifa quirked an eyebrow and watched him. "You couldn't, but he could. What's this really all about, Cloud? What is it about Loz that's got you all twisted up inside? I thought you had accepted you would both have to work together to stop Sephiroth?"

"It's the way you touch him," Cloud said quietly. "And the way you look at him. You help the way you used to help me. He gets the Tifa I had all to myself." He looked up at her and took note of her still damp hair. "And I think he gets a Tifa I never got the chance to know at all."

"Cloud, you don't need me like he does," she said softly. "You found yourself again so you don't need me anymore. As for knowing a different me…well, you had your chance Cloud and I couldn't wait around for you forever. So I didn't."

Cloud nodded. "I missed my chance. But that doesn't mean I have to like it."

Tifa pursed her lips. "No, you don't have to like it, but if you're my friend, you have to respect my choices and even if you don't agree with them, you have to support me."

"Well, then you ask yourself this, Tifa: in the end, when all is said and done, can you live with the fact that you let a part of Sephiroth touch your heart?" Cloud asked bitingly.

She narrowed her eyes. "That is one hell of a low blow, Cloud. And it says a lot about you, not me."

Cloud narrowed his eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Is this really about me and Loz, or is it about you and Sephiroth?" she clarified. "Do you really think I don't have my eyes open or are you worried that I'll make the same mistake you did when you trusted Sephiroth and even looked up to him?"

Cloud worked his jaw for a few moments. "Talk about your low blows, Tifa."

"It's a fair question," she answered.

He sighed and dropped to the sofa. "Of course this is about me and Sephiroth. Even if he died and his will finally dissipated into the Lifestream, everything he did would still haunt me. I don't want to see him shatter your heart."

Tifa sat beside her friend and smiled slightly. "Loz is not Sephiroth. You would actually like him if you got to know him. Look, I don't expect you two to do any male bonding or anything, but I do want you to understand that I'm a big girl and right now, I choose to help him. I also choose to be around him. He needs us, you especially. He is used to having someone tell him what to do and to guide him. In his mind, you are the closest thing to a brother he has."

"With his memories back, he reminds me of the same brutal remnant we encountered before," Cloud said. " A guy whose rage madness wouldn't let him stop attacking until he was stopped or his target disappeared! If Marlene hadn't thrown that materia at him, he would have killed you in that church. Reno and Rude blew him up and he still survived long enough to help his brother try and kill all three of us!"

Tifa nodded. "Parts of that man come through…but so do the parts he created since his return. He needs time and with how this city treats him on a regular basis, the last thing he needs is any of us adding to the grief."

Cloud nodded. "I'll try, Tifa."

She nodded and squeezed his hand. "Thank you, Cloud."
They turned at the sound of a man clearing his throat. Vincent was in the doorway with Loz standing behind him, watching the intimate scene with interest. Tifa winked at him to set his mind at ease, but he was confused by what he was seeing.

"Did you come up with anything?" Cloud asked.

"I think Loz and I may have come up with an explanation as to why Sephiroth needs you both," Vincent said. He turned and faced Loz. "Why don't you explain it?"

Loz looked at him vacantly. "Huh?"

"Why does Sephiroth need us both?" Cloud asked stiffly.

"Oh, well, from what I remember he needed all three of us, Kadaj, Yazoo, and me, to bring him back to life," Loz said.

"Was that why Kadaj couldn't sustain Sephiroth after Cloud's attack?" Tifa asked with a frown.

Loz nodded. "Yeah. One of us wasn't strong enough for him to return permanently. He needed all of us."

"Well, doesn't that mean he'll need one more person?" Cloud asked.

"Not necessarily," Vincent said. "Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz were all remnants of Sephiroth, none of them whole. Loz is, technically, a whole person now and so are you, Cloud."

"Will he absorb us like he did with Kadaj?" Cloud asked quietly.

Vincent shrugged. "It's hard to say for sure, but again, the fact that you are both whole beings suggests you will remain in corporeal form. However, I can't say for certain that either of you would be of any use. The amount of energy Sephiroth would use from each of you may leave you both weak or even in a coma."

"How do we stop him?" Tifa asked.

Vincent looked at her and shook his head. "I don't know if we can stop him. At this point, our only hope is that the whole process weakens Sephiroth as well. Then we may be able to contain him."

Loz shook his head. "He won't be weak at all." They all looked at Loz and he frowned. "What? It's true. He's been waiting for a long time and he's got a major hard-on for killing brother in case no one's noticed. I think he'll be ready to fight as soon as he appears."

Vincent considered his crudely put observation. "It's possible he's right. Sephiroth has been beaten by you twice now, Cloud. He is becoming obsessed with destroying you."

"We'll just have to destroy him first," Tifa said.

"How are we going to do that?" Loz asked. "Brother and I can barely stop him from destroying us from the inside out! How are you, Vincent, and two possibly comatose guys going to destroy him?"

She got to her feet and began pacing. "I don't know. Maybe if we got the others…"

"No," Cloud said as he got to his feet.

"No? But, Cloud…" Tifa began, but Cloud shook his head.

"This is my fight, Tifa," he said as he squeezed her upper arm gently. He turned and glanced at Loz. "And it's his fight too. No one can help us Tifa, because we have to get out from under Sephiroth's thumb for good."

Vincent looked around at them and sighed. "I think we've done everything we can for tonight. No one is going to vanquish anyone if you're all asleep on your feet. Could we all impose on you for the night, Tifa?"

She smiled and nodded. "Sure. We have enough beds." In her head, she was nervous about Loz's sleeping arrangements. It would be awkward to have him sleep with her like she wanted given Cloud's feelings about her relationship with the remnant, but she didn't want to confuse him by sending him away.

"You can take my bed, Vincent," Cloud said suddenly. "Loz and I can take the kids' room."

"Is that a good idea?" Loz asked with a frown.

"We have to look out for each other," Cloud said with an indifferent shrug. "If you start to change, I'll be there to stop you."

Loz narrowed his eyes. "And vice versa."

Cloud smirked, but nodded. "That's the idea."

"I'll go put the sheets on the kids' beds," Tifa said as glared at Cloud's back.

"I need some fresh air," Loz grumbled before leaving the room.

Cloud turned to Vincent and rolled his eyes. "Don't say a thing."

"I would even think about it," Vincent said emotionlessly.

Loz sat on top of an old picnic table in the middle of a slab of concrete that served as a patio area behind Seventh Heaven. It was a rare night when stars periodically appeared behind the persistently cloudy skyline. He wanted everything to be over. He didn't want the threat of Sephiroth's return hanging over him any more, he didn't want to deal with brother…Cloud…whatever, and his mood swings, and he didn't want to face his mortality again so soon. All he wanted to do was live. He wanted to live a normal life, fixing bikes, making friends, and being with Tifa. He wanted to come to her bar at the end of the night, have a drink with Reno while he hit on anything with differing body parts from himself before falling down drunk or having Rude cut him off for his own good. Then, at the end of the night, he could fall asleep with Tifa in his arms, wake up the next day, eat breakfast with the kids and start the cycle all over again.

But that wouldn't happen if Sephiroth had his way! And at a time when he expected tears to fall, Loz raised a hand to his face and it was dry with only an angry frown there. He was surprised that his tears had given way to his anger. It always made him laugh to think of everyone thinking he was the most angry, twisted remnant of the three, but in actuality, he was the most childlike. Kadaj call him childish, but Yazoo always assured him he was childlike. The term childish always implied immaturity, but Loz wasn't immature. He would have rather just focused on having fun and enjoy playing around instead of being so serious all the time. Kadaj told him it was his crying that made him childish.

He was pulled from his musings by the sound of soft footsteps behind him. He turned and glanced over his shoulder.

"Tifa?"

She smiled and sat beside him on the picnic tabletop. "The bed is all ready for you." She noticed his frown. "What's got you frowning like that?"

He shrugged and looked away. "I'm just thinking."

"About what?" she asked.

"About how I just want to give this life a go," he said. "I'm not ready for Sephiroth to take it away from me and the idea of him trying to do that pisses me off."

She smiled slightly at the venom with which he spoke. She was not used to him being so angry. "Wow. Well, Sephiroth won't know what hit him should he dare try to stop you from living, huh?"

Loz snorted. "I doubt he thinks I'm any kind of threat to him."

"Than he's a fool," Tifa said as she raised her eyes to the sky. "I can see the stars tonight."

He looked up too and nodded. "Yeah. They're pretty."

She smiled and nodded before turning her gaze to him. He felt her looking at him and turned his face so he could return the glance. They stared at one another for a moment before Tifa cleared her throat and blushed slightly.

"The beds are all made up for you and Cloud," she said. "Whenever you're ready, come on inside. Just lock the door behind you."

Loz reached out and grasped her hand as she hopped down from the table and turned to go. She turned and looked at him questioningly.

"I don't want Sephiroth to break you," he whispered.

She smiled sadly. "Neither do I. And you know what? I don't want him to break you either, Loz."

One corner of his mouth lifted in a smirk. "Would you miss me?"

She nodded, her smile brightening a little. "I would miss you a lot, Loz."

He drew her closer to him and pulled her into a gentle embrace. He caressed her cheek and gently lifted her chin with the tips of his fingers so he could kiss her, gently at first, but with a little more passion than either of them intended. In the end, they both withdrew reluctantly.

"I'll come to bed now," he said, his voice husky with repressed passion. "Maybe I'll have some good dreams."

Tifa laughed softly and nodded. "I know I will!"

Cloud watched Tifa smile up at Loz after their kiss. She held his hand as he pushed himself off the table and she continued to do so as they walked back into the building, the door opening and closing confirming they were coming in for the night. Cloud didn't have to turn around to know he wasn't alone.

"Remember our talk of letting go something being one of the hardest things we have to do in life?" Cloud asked quietly.

"Yes," Vincent answered from the doorway.

"It's not hard," Cloud said. "It's damned near impossible."