AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hiiiiiiii! MEEERF IS NOT DEAD. I am working on something… big… in this fandom, but I have some scraps for your FF7R hype!

Untitled for now, because the title of this collection is a SPOILER.

Thanks to my friends on the Final Heaven Discord Server – much of this collection was written for their requests.

ENJOY!

NEW YEAR'S FIREWORKS

Written in real time NYE 2020

All of Edge was waiting in anticipation. For some, this would be the first time they had ever seen fireworks. Denzel thought he might have seen some when he was small, but he wasn't sure; for Marlene, it was the first time for certain. They were only happening in Edge due to an "anonymous benefactor", which was the understood code for "Rufus ShinRa".

The children were off with Barret. They had left Tifa and Cloud behind with the casual nonchalance of children, so eager to get to the fun that they forgot who they were leaving alone. Not that either of the two minded.

Tifa had only ever seen fireworks once before, at the Gold Saucer, a lonely evening with her thoughts of unrequited love. Thoughts she now understood were wrong, oh so wrong. And neither was she alone.

Cloud's arm was wrapped around her. She knew it was on his mind, though, and she wished he would just get it out, get over the stumbling block impeding this night.

"Just say it, Cloud," she prodded him gently. "It's okay."

He took a deep breath, bracing to say uncomfortable words, even though they both knew what was there. "I wish Aerith didn't have to die on this day," he finally said.

Tifa knew. Just hours away from another year of her life... but that was three years away now. Years that she wished her friend could have spent with them, but it was not to be.

"Cloud," she asked cautiously. "Don't you think... I think maybe today, instead of mourning her death, we could celebrate it instead?"

He looked towards her, part saddened, part just plain confused. "Don't you get it?" she asked him. "What I've been telling you all along. The only way to honor her life - and Zack's - is to keep living."

He looked at her seriously. "I don't understand. No completely. But I think I'm starting to." His left hand took hers, gently fingering the silver ring that bore his mark, his accidental token of love for her. His right hand caressed the side of her face. "This is the part I understand."

He kissed her, softly, deeper, and as Tifa heard midnight strike, the first sparks lit above her. But the brightest sparks were those right with her, in bright blue eyes and strong arms wrapped around her.

He held her close, they watching fireworks for the first time together. But there would be many more. She knew that now.

The finale burst, and then the last lights faded into black darkness, stars visible now that the Mako reactors no longer drowned them out. They locked eyes. "It's a new year," she whispered to him.

"Then let's give it a proper beginning." Grip tightening on her hand, she let him lead her back through the doors of Seventh Heaven. Their home.

HAPPY NEW ERA 20!