Out of a Broken Place

by Somebody's Nightmare

It had been hours since their home was destroyed. She was empty, hollow and desiccated where her hopes and dreams had been wrung out. And her soul had been fragmented into shards. But pressed against him as they navigated above the plate with the sunset bleeding into his skin, Tifa soon understood one thing. He was the only one.

Out of a Broken Place

Tifa hated grappling hooks.

They never discharged quite the way that she planned or timed. They always deployed a few seconds later than she imagined and it always left her doubling up on her feet or nearly dropping Barret, who could operate his own with perhaps half the efficiency that she could.

But not Cloud. For whatever reason, every time that Cloud discharged his hook, it soared over the nearest wall and landed with an assured finality. When he was anchoring them, she never worried.

She was unsure under her own hand, and under Barret's, she worried even more.

Hence her current situation. She was secured against him, the steel and velvet of his muscles and skin within her reach hidden just beneath the surface of his sweater. She'd nearly fallen, but he'd been right there to catch her when her boots missed the slab, carrying her away as he effortlessly shot his hook onto a beam above.

Tifa didn't understand it. Ever since she'd found him at the train station a week ago, she'd been awestruck by her long-lost friend and his abilities. His wielding of a sword had been impressive enough, but then he could also fling magic from his wrists and heal others and was handy with mechanics and had the slickest, smoothest mouth with some of the roughest people in the sector that she had ever seen or heard.

Everything about his effortlessness was intriguing, but at odds with her memories of the sweet, shy boy who had lived next door to her and had a wild streak of untamable impulsiveness that had him lashing out at every other boy in the village. He was all collected and calm now, rarely losing his cool or his temper, even when he and Barret went back and forth to the point that Tifa thought her head might burst.

Those days and nights in Sector7 had unwound her. She couldn't figure him out, no matter how deep she dug into her cache of memories. He was elusive and surrounded by an impenetrable layer, and the more she realized how deep it ran, the higher her anxiety rose and the harder her curiosity and her melancholy hit, bringing back memories of a painful past she couldn't ever get back or reconcile.

As soon as he'd woken fully from his stupor when she brought him back to Stargazer Heights that first night, his eyes had found a way to glue themselves to her. He was quiet and observant those first few days, rarely rewarding her with more than a monosyllabic response whenever she checked on his physical well-being. But soon, a day or two later, the ice began to melt, and Tifa felt like her dearest friend had returned to her, only now wrapped in the strong, protective case of a man.

A man who was stoic and impatient and so damn hot Tifa found that she couldn't stop staring at him, blushing whenever their eyes met until she was cursing herself and trying to find a corner where she could tamp down the way her cheeks and her entire body flushed.

It was a bit too much for her to handle, especially when he started to hang around Seventh Heaven as he waited and searched for work, his eyes hovering a little too dangerously on her body. Tifa was well acquainted with men's stares, had learned to fight them and their accompanying advances ever since she had first moved to Midgar.

But this was different. Cloud's eyes on her body left her feeling hot and exposed in a way that made her feel good, made her feel beautiful, made her want to lay down in the sun and stretch her body out for him and him alone to admire for as long as he wanted.

It took more than she cared to admit to swallow down her constant excitement whenever he was near. It wasn't helped when they went monster hunting together, blood and sweat and industrial fabric soon becoming the only barriers that separated them. The way that his biceps clenched every time he reached for his sword and the manner in which he praised her anytime she cut down an enemy had left her feeling pleasantly surprised by the way they had fallen in rhythm together, and she was embarrassed as all hell by the fact that her panties were soaking wet when they finally made their way back to Wymer and the Watch.

The attraction just grew deeper the more time they spent together, and it was only when he was slipping through her fingers again that Tifa realized her feelings had spilled over into full-blown infatuation and maybe even love. She wanted to curse herself for not saying all of the words that lived in her heart when she still had him within her grasp.

Watching over Barret's shoulder, tears clouding her vision as Cloud fell through the abyss to the slums below, was when Tifa knew she really hated grappling hooks.

Despite this regret, she didn't say a word when he came back to her again, too embroiled in the reality of the world that was crashing around them and too caught up in her failure at not being able to complete her mission alone. And there was another girl with him now, one who only complicated things no matter how much she fawned over Tifa and clung to her arm.

All of that seemed silly in hindsight. At the present moment, Cloud was with her again, and for the last twelve hours, hadn't removed himself from her sight or from her side. He'd been right there when she'd first opened her eyes after the plate fell, pulling her away from the collapses of their home, and he held her tight under the cracks in the starlit sky in their friend's garden when she broke down in misery at the realization of their losses. When day broke, he was right next to her as they ran through the slums, readying themselves to enter the belly of the beast to rescue a girl Tifa soon realized she had no reason to be skeptical of.

And now, he was clinging to her, holding her tight against his body, one hand secured to the grappling gun and the other firm around her waist.

They were making their way topside in pursuit of that goal, Barret's cusses the soundtrack of their ascent the entire way. While he stumbled around behind them, Cloud and Tifa remained constantly in sync as they climbed, Cloud checking to see if she was behind him or holding her close to him whenever they leaped and her hook didn't quite catch into a nearby rock.

The sun had been fading into a blended hue of dark pinks and bright oranges along the rim of the horizon as they bounded up broken flights of stairs, vaulting over the rubble that was left behind in the wake of an abandoned and nearly collapsed tower that led Topside. It showcased the beauty of the sky above Midgar that was bleeding into a myriad of colors, a canvas that Tifa rarely had the opportunity to see from below the plate.

Curling her fingers into Cloud's sweater as they zipped higher among the streaks of waning sunlight in the sky, Tifa closed her eyes against his chest and thought about the moments they'd shared as a group before they had been ambushed by The Valkyrie, one of Shinra's super-mech units. They had come to a stop on a catwalk that overlooked the slums below, broken wedges of concrete and steel decorating the landscape around them. Tifa could see the anxious bustle of Sector Six and the quiet, darkened stillness of Sector Seven in the distance below, the two neighborhoods side by side but so eerily different thanks to events of the night before.

She'd dropped her hands to the rail in front of her, the leather of her gloves squeaking against the metal as she squeezed. She was just catching her breath, trying to push Cloud and the last time she had been pressed against him as they made their way higher in pursuit of the surface from her mind when her eyes fell on Sector Seven again. The darkness that hovered over that patch of land, still illuminated by quietly burning fires near the pillar that had been blown to bits stabbed and tore through her again, and all Tifa could think about was everything that had been vanquished, years of hard work evaporated in the blink of an eye.

Cloud had stood at one side and Barret at her other, the air around them still warm and her body still lined with sweat from all of their fights against infantrymen and SOLDIERS and the mech units Shinra kept throwing at them. Cloud took a step closer to her, dropping his hands to the rail beside hers, and he was suddenly so close that Tifa could hear his gentle breathing when he released a quiet sigh next to her.

Part of her wanted to know why he was always so close, but a more desperate part wanted to know why whenever he was, she always felt herself getting worked up, blistering heat setting her nerves on fire. And the more anxious and tightly wound she got, the more he hovered until it became a vicious cycle that left her desperately climbing through her feelings and not sure what to do about the way they bloomed throughout her body and occupied her headspace constantly, a blend of physical desire and emotional need.

"We'll build another bar," Barret had grunted into the wind, bringing her thoughts back to the devastation below.

Tifa's eyes returned to the dark silhouette below, highlighted by flames, that was Sector Seven. At that moment, all she could do was nod slowly, not knowing where that bar would be built or where they would even go after all of this. It had taken so much time and so much out of her already bruised and shattered heart as it was to settle into Midgar five years ago, all alone. She couldn't imagine doing it all over again in yet another place that she was unfamiliar with.

She could still feel Cloud's warmth at her side, and as the anxiety at Barret's words swelled inside of her, she turned to him, clasping her hands in front of her, unable to stop the words that climbed out of her throat.

"You'll help too, right?"

She hated the desperation that crawled through her voice. Once again, she found herself laying her burdens and her worries at Cloud's feet. She had been doing this since he regained coherency after she found him at the train station. First, it had been the bombing missions, then it had been the clean-up jobs around the slums, and somehow it had even turned into him hanging around the bar and keeping a watchful eye on things as she worked. It quickly escalated into her crying her miseries into the soft knit of his sweater, the world crashing and burning around the tranquility of a quiet, verdant garden where the Lifestream passed through the rifts in the earth. Tifa didn't mean to keep piling these pressures on him; she'd lived five years without having to rely on others as a crutch. But for some reason, whenever he was near, she found she couldn't avoid leaning into him.

He was silent for a moment, Barret grumbling off to her right. But then he smirked at her, his eyes glowing in the descending darkness as he turned slightly away.

"For a price."

He had been teasing her. She saw the profile of his face, his lips still turned up at the corners, goading. She was already hot and sweaty, but the playfulness in his tone had only sent a new crash of prickly desire across her skin, its tingles leaving themselves between her thighs.

Barret hadn't thought this was funny. He growled begrudgingly, pushing away from the rail to stomp toward the cracked and crumpled ramp that led to the next level.

"Let's jus' keep movin'."

Tifa met eyes with Cloud when Barret was out of sight, and she offered him a shrug while Cloud let his eyes pass over her. That swirl of blue was flashing in a rage around the glowing rim of green as he stared, and it made Tifa feel hot all over again.

She'd had to shove it to the side quickly, though, because it had only been moments later that they were being fired upon by a nasty looking machine that was just out of the reach of her fists, and Tifa had to try and concentrate on staying alive and not on how badly she wanted Cloud Strife to back her up against a wall and help her relieve a different sort of pressure that she had been under.

That had been moments ago, and when The Valkyrie splintered away into pieces, the resulting explosion had broken apart the platform they stood on, concrete falling into thick broken slabs right beneath her feet.

She remembered sliding across the rubble as it descended, panic rising from the center of her gut all the way to her throat as she felt her skin scrape against the craggy rock, tearing her stockings. She'd flailed her arms, seeking purchase anywhere that she could find it, but she hadn't even had enough time to fully realize the predicament she was in when she was weightless and floating through thin air. But she soon felt a strong arm capture her around her shoulders, pulling her into the safety of his chest as the cord of his grappling gun whistled past her ear.

She knew instantly that it was him - had distantly heard him calling her name before he caught her - and she wrapped her arms around him without hesitation, her legs between his as she closed her eyes to the dizzying whirlwind of the world around them. She felt weightless again, but this time safe and secure, knowing he would never let anything happen to her.

How was it that barely a week had gone by, and she was already so sure of that fact?

The thought evaporated from her mind when she realized that she was slipping down his body as they swung above the wreckage, new panic settling in as the velocity of their bodies tearing at an upward curve through the air was pulling her away from him. Terrified, she clutched at the leather strap of his harness, her right arm using all of its strength to grip his shoulders as tight as she could.

But Cloud was a step ahead of her, and she could feel his left hand lower past her hips and then boost her up against his body so that she wasn't half a second from slipping away from him. But even as fast as everything was happening, her hair whipping across her body and around his torso, Tifa realized with the force of a lightning bolt that he'd dropped his palm to her ass, his hand firmly against the leather of her skirt and pressing her even closer to him.

They were looping a bend around the deserted tower they wove through, and Tifa could see the platform only a few hundred feet away, looming in with the force of the wind and their combined weights dragging them toward the plank where Cloud's hook had stabbed. But Tifa could only think about the tight, possessive hold that he suddenly had on one of the most intimate parts of her body, his hand so sure and steady as he held her that if she wasn't in the midst of fearing for her life, she might have burned away like touch paper.

She didn't have time to think about it past that. The next thing she knew, she was rolling to a stop on the concrete of the roof, ducking her head under her hands to protect it. She'd separated from Cloud at the impact, stopping on her feet with her knees bent, her hands on the ground in front of her. Cloud had fallen to his feet with a feline deftness just in front of her, and it was in the next breath that he was standing in front of her, offering her a hand and helping her stand.

"You okay?" he asked her as soon as she got to her full height in front of him.

She huffed out a breath. His hand was still holding hers, and she could feel the warmth and the firmness of his skin beneath the leather. It calmed her instantly, but then the sear returned, reddening her cheeks as she realized that the same hand had been wrapped around her waist and then had fallen firm to her rear.

"I - I'm fine," she responded after a moment, looking away from his apprising stare. When she answered, he nodded and then released her, finally backing away from her.

He was still too close, Tifa realized, hearing her heart pound against her ribcage. She tried to concentrate and steady her breathing, but all she could think about was the firm heat of his body against hers, of his arms holding her close and his hand clutching her tight. As a gust of the Topside wind blew past, Tifa was burning up, every nerve ending in her body alight, a scorch between her knees and a heavy ache in her breasts. She looked up at him from beneath her lashes when he turned away, catching the profile of his face and wishing he would just grab her and push her down to the ground, right here on the rooftop in the middle of the ruins.

"Ay! Over here!"

Barret's shout across the wind momentarily caught her attention, and Tifa turned to find him several hundred feet away from them on another building across a fragmented stretch of expressway below. In the distance, Tifa could just barely make him out waving his arm to get their attention.

Cloud started to jog to the edge of the roof, waving in response.

"Come around up that sky bridge!" Barret yelled from the other side. "The Shinra Tower is about half a mile down this tunnel up ahead. I'll wait for you over here!"

"Okay, Barret!" Tifa cried, waving both hands in the air, Cloud silently nodding in agreement. They watched as Barret disappeared into a dim passageway behind him. The sun was now nearly fully behind the horizon, and the sky was darkening rapidly, the air growing cooler.

"Come on, let's get going," Cloud said. He glanced at her face, waiting for her to fall in step beside him before he kept moving.

Tifa locked eyes with him when he turned to her again. It wasn't intentional, but he had just happened to look up at the right moment, and instantly, she was dropped back into those hazy aquamarine pools. Her heartbeat was thundering again when he blinked at her and then took a step forward, his brow wrinkled with sudden concern.

"Tifa?" he asked. "Something wrong?"

Why did he have to keep calling her name like that? Every time he said it, she felt the burn, hitting parts of her body she tried desperately not to think about but couldn't ignore. She stretched her arms behind her back, grinding her thighs together as she toed the ground with one foot behind the heel of the other.

"I'm fine," she answered, swallowing thickly around her words.

Cloud regarded her skeptically for a moment, but then he nodded, and he turned away, making his way around a spire of twisted iron toward a ramp. Even in the falling darkness, Tifa could see that it would lead them to the sky bridge a few meters ahead that they could cross to reach Sector Zero Topside where they would find Barret.

Tifa tried to still her breathing to a normal rhythm as she followed behind him, but she found that every breath she took came out in loud, raspy puffs. As they continued to walk, she could feel the exhaustion settle into her bones and the pain into her muscles, and she rolled her shoulders and her back, letting out a little sigh just as Cloud came to a stop by a narrow corridor in the building's facade.

"Are you sure you're okay, Tifa?" he asked, turning around and facing her.

He now had his arms crossed over his chest, his eyes glowing at her as they focused, their intensity sharp and searing her from where they connected with her face all the way in a straight line down to her core. She tried not to wither under his stare, but her body was too responsive, and she wrapped her arms around herself, shaking her head as her cheeks began to heat up.

"I'm okay, Cloud," she said to the floor.

She started to walk around him, intent to continue on their way, but as she moved past him, he stopped her with a hand on her forearm. She was singed straight to her flesh, feeling the heat of his heavy palm even through his thick leather gloves and her lycra compression sleeves. His grip was sure and strong, and the weight of it was enough to stop her in her tracks.

"You look upset," he observed. "And you're breathing really heavily. Your skin is flushed. I can tell how worked up you are, Tifa. What's wrong? Do you need a minute?"

Tifa could have scoffed. What's wrong? Do I need a minute?

Does he have any idea what he's doing to me?

She could feel beads of sweat roll between her breasts beneath her tank top, more evidence of the way that his eyes and hands on her ruined her. She tried to stand up a little taller, pulling her shoulders back and finally meeting his eyes to convince him that she was not unraveling in front of him the way that she actually was.

"I'm fine," she assured him again. "I'm just a little flustered after that fight. I'll be okay. We should keep moving, though. It's getting dark."

Cloud watched her for a moment, but then he released her arm, nodding in assent. It had fallen to full dark now, and the wind had grown even chillier, a welcome shift in the atmosphere for Tifa, helping to cool off some of the lava in her blood.

She breathed a silent sigh of relief when Cloud turned away and made his way toward the dark corridor ahead, and she followed him at a respectable but safe distance, trying with a fair degree of difficulty not to focus on the way that his biceps twitched or the muscles of his back and shoulders shifted beneath his sweater with each step that he took.

He approached the corridor, discovering it to be nothing more than an extremely narrow service tunnel that at one point had been part of the building's complex system of maintenance routes. Staying a couple of feet behind him, Tifa rose up on her toes to peer over his shoulder, finding the space beyond a void of black.

Cloud took a moment to look around, but the destruction of the building's infrastructure had blocked off any other egress for them to get around the structure toward the sky bridge.

"It's dark," he warned her over his shoulder. "There doesn't look like there is any light in there. But from what I can see, it cuts across the main tower to the sky bridge on the other side. Looks like an old service tunnel, maybe used alongside the dumbwaiter system. We should be able to safely navigate it to the other side."

Tifa swallowed, feeling her heart begin to rise and stomp, though now it was for an altogether different reason, fear and anxiety curling up like a fist in the center of her belly. "Okay," she responded to him quietly, knowing that she could always trust him to make the best decision, even if her own nerves were turning to water.

He turned to her, stepping out of the way. "You should go first," he suggested. "I'll feel better if you're in front of me where I can see you."

Tifa wasn't sure why his words rippled over her with a mild shockwave, nor could she explain why the sensation sent a pulse straight between her thighs, leaving her suddenly feeling warm and wet all over again. He was only considering her safety, nothing more and nothing less, but for some reason, his propensity for protectiveness and care ignited her every time, and she struggled, trying to avoid melting right at his feet. He was watching her carefully again, his eyes on her face, and all it did was send a fresh bloom of red heat across her skin, forcing her to duck her face away from him to avoid showcasing the rosiness of her cheeks too much.

"Okay," she replied, unable to formulate any other words with any degree of coherence.

Breath caught in her throat, Tifa stepped past him, trying to ignore the way that his head turned and he watched her as she moved. She tried to push down the rush of excitement and curious anticipation that she felt as his eyes burned the back of her body when she stopped at the lip of the tunnel, bracing her hands against either side of the steel.

"I'm right behind you," he assured her firmly.

And he was. Instantly, Tifa could feel the heat of his body behind her, his voice right beside her right ear, a fortress that was steady and strong and reliable. It was only what was in front of her that was foreign and unknown.

She could hear the softness of his breath behind her, and taking his words as encouragement to get moving, Tifa nodded in response and stepped inside the tunnel, the darkness inside quickly leaving her feeling blinded. The floor was constructed from steel just as the walls were, and Tifa could tell from the creaks beneath their booted feet that it had begun to rust a long time ago. She braced her hands against the walls on either side of her, the tunnel so narrow that she couldn't even stretch her arms out without bending them at the elbow. She took a few careful, tentative steps, but the farther they retreated from the entrance, the less of the moonlight and artificial glow from the reactors beyond filtered inside. Soon, it was pitch black and Tifa could rely on nothing but her sense of touch, and her steps grew slower and slower, icy terror gripping her nerves.

"Tifa."

Tifa stopped, the tenor of his voice reverberating throughout her body as if cymbals had crashed behind her. His tone was low but cautionary, and it forced her to close her eyes and wait as he drew even closer to her.

"It's too dark. I can see a little bit better than you can, but probably not much. We need to stay close, okay?"

"Okay."

She wasn't sure what he had meant when she agreed, but it quickly became clear to her when he dropped both hands to her waist. They fell right above the waistband of her skirt, his fingers pressing gently into the exposed skin of her belly, a cool blend of the sensations of leather and steel on her skin.

"Um…"

"Just keep moving," he commanded. He'd come up even closer to her now, his body a firm wall of heat behind hers, and she could just barely feel every line and plane of masculine strength that was encased in that Adonis-like form. "We can't idle in one spot for too long. It's past dark and we're easy targets for monsters."

She nodded, shutting her eyes to the darkness in an effort to steel her nerves as she took another step forward, steadily creeping along the corridor with Cloud close and latched on behind her. But it was hopeless. As soon as she closed her eyes, all she could see was Cloud, his deep blue eyes pulsing with mako as he stared hungrily at her, his hands reaching for her hips, pulling her in close. All she could feel was his body behind hers, the firmness of his chest against her back, and she realized that she was falling victim to her own fantasies about this boy who she had pined for and dreamed about since before she had even learned what it meant to be a woman. Now here he was a man, so beautiful and well-made and sweet and protective that all she wanted was for him to throw her up against a wall and -

The wall to her left was suddenly throttled by an impact so forceful that it tossed her against the opposite side, Tifa's daydreams in the dark dispelled as she felt her arms bend back painfully. Cloud immediately pulled her in close, and she realized that whatever had hit the passageway from the outside had dented the steel-reinforced wall.

She heard a chorus of mechanical screams, and Tifa closed her eyes again, realizing that another mech unit was hovering on the other side. Cloud shifted his hands away from her waist and had now wrapped his arms around her entire upper body, leaning back against the opposite wall and holding her tight and close to his body in front of him.

"Cloud - "

"Shh," he whispered, cutting her off. Tifa could feel his breath skirt across the back of her neck through her hair, drifting toward her ear. She squirmed, feeling every muscle in his body twitch as he held her, his arms securely around her and not letting her go, much the way they had been when he'd comforted her in Aerith's garden. Only this time, they weren't face-to-face, but instead, the front of his body pressed against the back of hers in a way that ignited the fiery pool that lived dormant in her belly. "We need to remain completely still, or it'll keep attacking. If it hits this thing hard enough, it'll knock us back down all the floors we already climbed, not to mention probably kill us. Just stay still."

As if to emphasize the seriousness of his command, Cloud squeezed her, but all it did was send the heat in her belly straight to her clit, forcing her to squeeze her thighs together as if this might alleviate the ache. It was a vain effort. Cloud was too close, his arms too strong and too protective and careful around her. He smelled too good, a blend of sweat and the iron in his blood over the faintest hint of mako and the cedar-scented soap he washed into his skin. It wrapped around her like a heavy fog in the claustrophobic darkness, and she kept her eyes closed, trying not to whimper or weep when he ducked his chin by her shoulder and expelled a soft breath against her skin that had her nipples hard and her underwear stained.

She tried to ignore her body's reactions, but her brain was short-circuiting. Cloud was holding her too tight, and she realized - feeling the stiff bulge at the front of his pants pressed against her backside - that she was not the only one who was affected by this arrangement. She thought again about their ascent on the grappling hook and wondered if his always self-assured grip on her body wasn't presaging some hidden, deeper need.

Shiva, how she hoped it was. If only he would just touch her with a little more purpose, taking off those gloves so that he could run his fingers over her bare skin. She would let him touch her anywhere he wanted, Tifa knew. She would open herself up like a fully bloomed rose for him, inviting those large palms to cup her bottom and those languid fingers to circle her nipples and comb through her folds, up and up until they reached her clit and then -

Her forlorn thoughts were cut off when Cloud grunted roughly behind her ear, and Tifa realized that she was so caught up in her daydreaming again that she was whirling her hips against his. Her cheeks flared so brightly that it was a wonder that they didn't light up the entire corridor they were trapped in. Embarrassed and grateful for the oppressive darkness, Tifa shook her head, almost ready to burst into tears from the blend of desperation and mortification.

"Cloud, I - "

"Shh," he purred beside her ear again, so light and sweet that it had the burn inside of her puddling away again. Tifa wondered at that moment if he would sound that sweet when he was fucking her hard and fast from behind with her arms pinned above her head and against the wall.

His warning was warranted, because the mech unit buzzed above them again, landing on the roof of the tunnel and stomping around with noisy thuds as it searched for its target. Cloud was squeezing her again, his way of urging her to stillness, but all it did was encourage the depravity of her imagination, her center growing wetter as she imagined kissing him roughly and messily while he fingered her until she was wide open and leaking over his hand.

"We can get moving," he suddenly directed, his voice firm again, his arms withdrawing from around her body so that his hands could return to her waist, gently giving her a push forward. As soon as he released her, Tifa slipped out of her fantasy again, and she felt as if she had just come up from underwater, suddenly finding herself gasping for breath. She had been so distracted that she hadn't even realized that the mech unit had, for the time being, given up on trying to unearth them from their hidden location.

They continued on, Tifa trying desperately to turn her salacious thoughts about her childhood friend away, but finding that she couldn't, that they were as persistent in her brain as an infectious disease. It was bad enough that she was filmed over with sweat and blood from all of their skirmishes that afternoon, but now she was filled with burning distraction and an electrifying ache, her nipples poking through the fabric of her top and her underwear deluged.

They had been carefully making their way through the darkness for a long, silent stretch of minutes with her thoughts stewing that way and her body refusing to cease its over-responsiveness to him behind her when Tifa finally caught the glimmer of starlight just beyond. Her pupils expanded in search of light, and she moved a little more confidently, Cloud keeping up with her pace until they were stepping out on the other side. They were atop an expansive, cracked slab of abandoned concrete that had once been a parking garage, the sky bridge to the buildings on the other side of the plate where Barret waited just ahead.

As soon as they were out of that narrow hallway, Tifa dropped her hands to her knees and drew in a deep breath. Cloud stepped around her, and she let her eyes drift to the right, catching his boots just a few paces away from hers. He was hovering again, and she was overwhelmed, unsure if she would be able to take being any closer to him physically like that again without her body doing something her heart and mind couldn't account for.

"You don't look okay," Cloud said, this time not bothering to ask but making a judgment of his own. His voice was stern and concerned, and if Tifa wasn't incoherently mishearing things, it also sounded a little chastising. It forced her to stand upright again, her eyes meeting his smoldering blues.

"I'm - "

"There's a bench over here," he cut her off, reaching for her hand and taking it. "Let's take a breather."

He was pulling her along without waiting for a response, his hand wrapped tight and firm around hers. She stared down at it in disbelief, marveling at the easy, simple intimacy that transpired between them without a second thought.

He brought her to a corner of the old parking lot that was shielded by a thick, twisted awning of metal that had rusted away with years of neglect and disuse, where a bench and a vending machine sat. The sky bridge was only a short distance away, a two-hundred-foot glass-encased tube that led to their next destination. Tifa eyed it in the darkness, wondering why Shinra had built all of this only to let it rot, but before her thoughts turned any dimmer, Cloud was pulling on both of her shoulders.

"Sit down."

His voice had taken on that rough edge again, the one that he deployed when they were on the battlefield or when he was strategizing their next move. It was serious and measured, but Tifa could tell that it was laced with concern, the faintest hint of softness coloring his tone.

He didn't sound like he was going to entertain a debate, and Tifa felt fairly certain that she had learned how to read his moods well over that past week they'd been together. Exhaling the breath she'd been holding, she sat on the bench, watching as he walked over to the vending machine and bought a bottle of water.

She couldn't stop herself from staring at him the entire time, watching the veins above his gloves bubble when he moved, his biceps flexing as he punched in keys on the machine. Her eyes drifted up to his face, admiring the boyishness that had sharpened so keenly over the years since they'd been apart, and when he turned to her and met hers, she realized that she was completely out of control, squeezing her thighs together and tucking her feet under the bench as her face lit up again.

Cloud came over to her, taking his sword off and setting it to the side of the bench, just within reach in case another mech unit or neighboring monsters found them. He sat beside her, so close that their thighs touched, and Tifa let out another breath, not daring to turn to look at him.

"Drink this," he instructed, once again issuing her a command. She was compelled to obey, the smooth, sonorous cadence of his voice letting her know that he was the leader here and that he expected her to follow and behave. Just the thought of him being in control, especially now that it was just the two of them, was enough to have her thoughts drifting to places they shouldn't. She sipped a bit of the water before passing it back to him. She was once again picturing herself up against a wall, his body pressed to hers with his hand wrapped around her throat and his lips hot on hers as he whispered sweet praises to her while also scolding her for misbehaving. She imagined him turning her around, his hands traveling her waist and her achy breasts, relieving her of the pressure she felt deep inside as he hiked her skirt up and pulled her panties down and -

"Tifa."

Once again, his call of her name had her tumbling out of the needy distraction that was ruining her and rendering her useless. What was wrong with her? She turned to him, scarlet eyes growing wide, and the wind blew gently, reminding her of how hard her nipples still were and of the fact that he had probably already noticed.

"Hmm?"

"You're really worked up," he told her again. He'd moved in even closer, dropping his right hand to her thigh. His other arm was around her shoulders along the top of the bench, and as his heady, masculine scent wrapped around her, Tifa realized that he was crowding her almost as closely as he had been inside of the tunnel. "Was it too much?"

She tried to breathe, but his essence was suffocating her in the best ways. "What?"

"In the tunnel," he answered, holding her eyes, his words crawling forth very slowly. "Me holding you?"

He was aware of that? Tifa was dumbfounded. Cloud seemed oblivious to anything that wasn't related to the mission in front of him most times, especially things like this. Had he actually noticed the burst of flames that erupted between them when he'd had her pressed against him in the darkness that way?

Did he realize it when his hand was on her ass and her breasts were pressed against his chest on the grappling hook?

Did he recognize it when they jumped from that train in Sector Five, their bodies rolling together over the tracks until they came to a stop, hers on top of his as he held her to him?

Did he feel it when she had wept and he had embraced her, his chin tucked by her hair as he wordlessly let her mourn all of the devastation and all of the losses she could never unwind?

She tried to shove all of this away, her thoughts jumbled and incoherent as she tried to assemble a response. Nothing she could say would make any sense, she realized. She was overcome by longing and lust and something deeply emotional and needy for Cloud, who had been an elusive friend as a boy and was now still just as elusive as a man, but something altogether more complicated than just a friend, so much so that it made her heart bleed.

"I don't…" she tried, but all it did was stain her cheeks with redness, and Tifa was grateful for the night sky, unaware that the moonlight and the reactors were highlighting her skin and that Cloud was drinking it all in.

"It's okay, Tifa," he told her softly after a long moment passed, seemingly giving her a chance to collect her thoughts. "I'm your best friend, right? We're all we both have. You can tell me anything."

Tifa finally glanced back up at him at that. What a strange thing to say, especially when his voice had dropped so low and had taken on that deep, sweet tune again. It unraveled the spooled tension in her center, but all this accomplished was making her feel even slicker between her thighs.

"Cloud, I - "

She tried. She truly did. But Tifa couldn't get the words out to tell him how she felt, not when his eyes were blazing blue-green trails on her face and then in a sweep across her body, his head turned to the side in consideration and concern. He was asking her for a confession, gently letting her know without putting her on the spot that he knew everything that was setting her on fire and winding her up tighter than the gears on a clock. But she was a coward and she could never admit what she was feeling, even when her body was pulling her in his direction, a magnetism drawing them together until Cloud's hand left her thigh and found her cheek, cupping it, his gloved thumb brushing her bangs away from her cheek.

"Tifa, it's okay," he told her. "You're so tense. We can't keep going like this. Let me help you relax."

"Cloud — "

But her words were cut off once again when she realized what he was doing - now pulling on her, hands latched to her upper arms as he centered her in his lap so that she was facing him. She found that she moved in sync with him the same way that they did in battle or when they were fleeing danger together, her legs spreading easily to either side of his hips, her center soon right above his crotch as he sat back against the bench and looked up at her.

"You okay?" he asked her again, his hands moving from her arms to her waist.

"Um…"

She didn't know if she would have protested, because he didn't give her an opportunity. He leaned up and found her mouth, his instantly capturing hers in a light kiss that gently parted her lips at the seam. It so surprised her - even more than his hand on her bottom on the grappling hook, or his grip on her waist in the tunnel, or even him pulling her into his lap right here on this bench - so much so that she gasped into his mouth, causing him to smile with amusement against her lips.

"It's okay," he promised her, breaking the kiss and sitting back again.

That one little kiss was enough to set loose stinging, bright flames across her skin, and she was hot and crazed again, her knees spreading in a desperate attempt to draw their centers even closer despite the thick fabrics that separated them. Unsure of what to do with her hands, she dropped them to his shoulders, her lips parting slightly as she looked down into his eyes, badly wanting him to kiss her again but once again unable to voice her desires.

He smirked at her as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, and Tifa wondered once again, somewhat horrifically, if it weren't possible that SOLDIERs could read minds. He pulled his hands away from her waist, widening his knees slightly so that she was securely balanced atop him, and she watched with her bottom lip between her teeth as he began to undo the clasps of his bracers and gauntlet, placing them to the side.

Tifa was too overwhelmed with burning need, greedy for relief for the deep throb that had been growing and intensifying for over a week now to consider how dangerous and ridiculous this entire situation was. All it would take was a well-timed ambush from one of Shinra's drones and they would be fucked.

But maybe that was what was making her need this even more badly than she had originally thought, the rush suddenly hitting her violently as she considered how risky their behavior was becoming.

She watched hungrily as Cloud slowly pulled off both of his gloves, not aware that she had slowly begun to grind her hips over his. He left the bandaging around his left wrist, and somehow the sight of it against his bare skin - Tifa realizing that she was seeing his hands for the first time - left her feeling as if she had just stepped on a live wire.

"Kiss me, Teef," he breathed, this time his command barely above a whisper, so low and so sweet that Tifa forgot they were among the wreckage of an abandoned Shinra skyscraper and not buried under the sheets in her bedroom where they probably should be doing this.

She felt everything come undone, and all of her shyness that stagnated over her words evaporated when it came time for action. She leaned forward, dropping her lips to his, still keeping her hands on his shoulders, her fingers curling into his sweater as she held onto him for dear life. His hands were back on her waist, but this time they were traveling, running up over her ribcage, fingers fanning out to test her breasts and thumb her nipples, finding those sore, stiff peaks with a light brush. His mouth opened wide this time, his tongue finding hers and sending sparks to the already inflamed, oversensitive parts of her body as he kissed her with the fury of the stars in the sky beyond that burned as suns to galaxies far, far away.

She moaned into his mouth, wanting more and wanting him, her hips rocking over his. Sensing her urgency as his lips devoured hers, she arched her back and moaned when his hands fell to her hips and pushed her down against his so that she could feel his erection, stiff and strained up against the warmth between her legs.

"You feel that?" he whispered into her lips, his tongue swiping a pass through the seam of hers, leaving a tether of saliva between them as he withdrew slightly. "I want you too, Tifa. I haven't been able to stop thinking about you all week. I was trying to avoid this."

Tifa blinked and shook her head slightly, confused by his words. Why was he contradicting himself? She had no idea how to read that, and it sent a hot, stabbing ache through her heart, turmoil tumbling throughout her skull.

"Why?" she demanded, her voice almost a whine. How could he tell her he wanted her but was avoiding the exact circumstances they found themselves in, necking and grinding against each other, in the very same breath?

He huffed, his lips parted and his mako-blue eyes still glowing up at her beneath the cover of darkness. The intensity in them dulled into a tranquil cerulean calmness, a softness taking reign that shifted the entire mood of this encounter. "Because… Tifa, I…"

He stopped, now his turn to be at a loss for words, and Tifa saw the bright pink stains erupt across his cheeks as he looked away. He shook his head slightly, but she panicked, and she brought both hands to his face, forcing him to look up at her, not wanting this moment to fall apart.

"Cloud… it's okay."

He nodded, and this time, Tifa dipped forward and resumed their kiss, discarding words behind them. Words were difficult. They complicated things, and it was obvious that neither of them had any real command of them. Words did them no favors, she realized.

Feeling him nip into her bottom lip with his teeth, Tifa figured they had no use for words, not when they had this.

His hands were roaming again, his confidence returning with the force of storm surge as they traversed her back and her hips and cupped her bottom beneath her skirt, squeezing with twice the force that he had on the grappling hook. She couldn't avoid pressing her breasts against his chest as she leaned into him, craving the close warmth of his hard and stable body, the bench creaking slightly beneath their squirms and shifts. She kissed him more desperately, her tongue fighting his, her mouth sucking his lips, and she felt herself losing control, wanting more and more and more as her veins filled with liquid fire.

For whatever reason - maybe it was the mako, maybe it was the fact that they had been friends for as long as Tifa's memory could stretch back, or maybe it was just that he was that in tune to her - he seemed to know every escalation of her heart rate, every beat of her pulse, every gush and flow of her desire as it neared the crest. He shifted, dropping one hand between her thighs, grazing over the center of her shorts and sending a wicked ache through her core that had her lurching forward.

"You're wearing too many layers," he complained.

By now, Tifa was reading him almost as well as he read her, and she knew that this was another indirect command. Without hesitation, she slid off of his lap, standing in front of him only long enough to reach beneath her skirt and hook her thumbs into the waistband of both her shorts and her underwear. Cloud sat forward slightly, never taking his eyes off of her face until she lowered them both to her feet and carefully stepped her boots out of them.

"Give me your panties," he told her, extending a hand.

She blushed, his words making her grow even wetter, and she was suddenly filled with both terror and thrill at the prospect of him finally discovering the slickness of her most intimate part. Shyly, she handed him her underwear, dropping her shorts on the bench as he stuffed them into his pocket. She stood there, feeling her desire stream down the inside of her thigh, and she was suddenly frozen in place in front of him.

"Come here," he said softly.

His voice always managed to lace itself right in the center of her heart, and she couldn't help but fall under his direction. She stepped closer, crawling back over his lap at his insistence and widening her thighs, letting her curtain of dark hair shield her face to hide her blush and embarrassment at the way that she leaked over him.

"Try not to make too much noise," he whispered a warning against the corner of her mouth, leaning forward with a gentle kiss as one hand slid between her thighs, the other keeping her secured to him with a firm hold on her hip.

It was easier said than done, and the sear was instant and bright, whiting out Tifa's vision as he slid two fingers down over her clit and then between her folds, stopping right at her opening, where he prodded just one, gently. It was the first surge of pleasure she had felt since the burn of her need for him had first been ignited, and even that split second pass over her swollen nub had been enough to have her arching her back and letting out a breathless whine as the bliss wrapped around her brain. Cloud breathed out heavily at her reaction, pushing his finger in even deeper and then curling it forward, his lips still pressed to her cheek, seeking kisses now moving along her jaw.

"You're so wet," he whispered, pumping his finger slowly, so slowly, in and out of her. How could one slender finger feel so good, inspiring such despairing feelings inside of her? "So tight, Teef."

She moaned huskily, pinching her eyes closed and trying to concentrate on the sweetness of the sensations he was dragging out of her. So, so many times she had thought about this very moment, had dreamed about it endlessly, but now it was actually happening. She wanted to savor it, never wanting to forget what it felt like to sit on Cloud Strife's lap and have him slowly and gently finger fuck her with his lips tracing sugary kisses across her face as she purred.

He added a second finger, whispering something into her skin that made her heart skip a beat, but she was beginning to mist over with incoherency. He was stretching and scissoring her open, and she was dripping all over his hand, but she couldn't even think about that fact, she was so wrapped up in the dark euphoria he was building in her, leaving her wanting the fullness that only a different part of him could provide. But it wasn't nearly enough, the throb in her clit aching and unsatisfied, and she rocked forward, diffidently kissing him again to encourage him.

"Cloud," she whispered, not recognizing the husky melody that had infiltrated her voice.

He hummed in response, sharing with her his understanding as his hand at her hip wrapped fully around her waist to hold her. He kissed her again, then looked back up into her eyes, pulling his fingers out of her and sliding them forward until he found her hot little button again.

Despite his earlier warnings, Tifa couldn't stop the stifled cry that escaped her throat when he began to rub her sensitive flesh in slow, tight circles, quickly crescendoing all of the screaming desire that had been building inside of her into a rapidly incinerating inferno. She dropped her head to his shoulder, panting and breathing hard, disbelieving that it was Cloud - the boy who she had loved for so, so long - doing this to her, bringing her this sort of furious, unabashed gratification.

Her mind was lit up with the realization that he was dragging her toward the peak while also reaffirming her most deeply held emotional tethers to him, her fingers clawing at his sweater as she whined. Sensing her desperation as she neared the edge, he whispered over and over again soft, calming praises in her ear, his breath gently disrupting her hair as he spoke, and Tifa felt a bright flash of white tear her apart as tears burned her eyes.

"Oh, Cloud… Cloud! I - Ohh…"

She went on and on like that as she climaxed, Cloud rubbing her faster and faster as she crashed. She was huffing and trying to reclaim her breath, her brain so disordered that her vision was beginning to fog and blur in front of her eyes. But Cloud now had both arms around her back, rubbing her consolingly and holding her to him.

"You okay now?" he asked her.

"No," Tifa answered immediately. The word tumbled past her lips unwittingly, but it was the complete truth. He may have quelled the throb, but he hadn't alleviated the ache. Not yet.

"No?" he repeated, one hand threading his fingers through her hair, sounding somewhat amused.

Tifa pulled back, looking down into his eyes again. His widened slightly as he looked up at her face, drinking in her blown-open pupils and heavy-lidded eyes, the pretty pink flush that had brightened her cheeks from her release. She blushed even further under his admiration, glancing down at where her hands still tore at the seams of his sweater.

"Fuck me, please, Cloud," she whispered, not sure why her words were so filthy. Maybe because it didn't make a whole lot of sense to beg him to make love to her in the middle of a wrecked and abandoned parking garage when their enemies were circling and their comrade was waiting for them on the other side of the rubble. Maybe it was because she was just too desperate after the orgasm he'd just given her that only vulgarity seemed appropriate for the heat of the moment. Or maybe it was simply because she hadn't been thinking straight for about twelve hours now.

His amusement only grew at her choice of words, smirk widening, and Tifa wondered where this playful and flirtatious side of him had come from. It was the same smirk he'd given her after he left her flustered in her bar with his smooth words, and once again, she was blushing and bright, still looking away.

"Whatever you want," he agreed, and without saying anything else, his hands were at his buckles, working them and his zipper open until his thick, strained cock was in his hand.

Tifa resisted the urge to cover her face with her hands at the sight of it, watching as he slowly pumped it up and down, the first streams of precum leaking over the tip and across the thick vein in the center. This was her first time seeing anything like this up close, and it flushed her with a blend of yearning and shyness, once again remembering that it was Cloud she was experiencing this moment with.

Realizing the conflicting torrents of emotions assailing her, Cloud leaned forward and kissed her again, toying with her lips to ease her anxieties about the moment they were about to share. His hand was back at her waist, sliding under her skirt to squeeze her bottom and pull her forward so that she was hovering over his length.

"You sure about this?" he asked against her lips, and Tifa could only nod in response, too afraid of her own voice at this point to respond.

He nodded in tandem, then gently guided the head of his cock to her opening, still slick and sopping from their earlier foreplay. Feeling him beginning to squeeze inside, she closed her eyes and held onto him tight, wincing and hissing as he pulled down on her hips until he was fully inside of her and had broken through the last barrier of resistance that existed between them.

"You okay?" he asked her again, cradling her to him, gently beginning to rock his hips forward to set a slow rhythm.

"Mhm," she conceded into his shoulder, feeling a slight burn that was followed by a delicious fullness, a stretch that she had never imagined could feel so good and so fulfilling. She had no experience with this, so she didn't know if it was always like this, but she suspected that it felt the way that it did because she was with the boy whose soul had always been transfixed to hers, now inside of her and touching the deepest part of her and bringing her back to life after years of dying in the darkness.

"Move a little bit," he encouraged her with a whisper, settling back against the bench, lurching his hips forward again. Tifa felt him scrape across a place deep inside that sent a myriad of colors behind her eyes, and she purred out his name, her hands stretching out his sweater.

Those four little words were all the motivation she needed, because Tifa soon found herself completely open on him, working her hips up and down on his cock as if it had always belonged to her. She became lost in her relentless pursuit of ecstasy, twirling her hips in new directions to find all of the different ways he could reach the parts of her existence that so badly craved his touch. She began to cry his name, trying desperately to keep her voice down so as not to attract monsters or mech, but failing miserably at her attempts. Cloud tried at one point to cover her mouth with his hand, but he was too distracted by the frenzy in which she rode him and gave up. His mouth had fallen open, and he watched her face and her waist and her hips in intermittence, soft groans and moans of her name escaping his lips as she worked herself faster and harder on him.

At some point, she'd planted her booted feet on either side of his thighs on the bench so that she could lift herself up and bounce on him, delighting in the hot stab against her insides every time she slammed back down on his dick, drinking in the way that his grunts soon escalated into breathless shouts that he was having a hard time suppressing despite how hard he tried. But Tifa soon realized it wasn't enough. The ache was too deep and too painful; it would take a far harder fucking than this to undo the years of hatred and hurt that had scarred her so deep she cried herself to sleep almost every night, especially after he had come back to her.

He was the only one who could fix this, the only one who could repair her and heal the wounds and stigmata across her heart.

She slowed the assault of her hips, panting loudly, Cloud's face crinkling slightly in confusion. She lowered her feet from the bench, resting once again on her knees, Cloud still sheathed inside her as she leaned in close to his ear.

As the words escaped her lips, she couldn't believe she was saying them, and her whisper was so soft that she almost didn't hear the words she spoke.

But Cloud heard her. At once, he pulled her back, his eyes catching hers, the rim of mako green in his as bright as an emerald gemstone. His gaze was gentle and probing as if trying to truly understand, but Tifa only nodded, her heart pounding even harder as she crawled off of his lap and stood in front of him.

She realized that Cloud had lifted his sweater to the center of his chest in order to stave off the heat that they had generated, and his abs were sheened with sweat, their muscles rippling under the starlight. It was an immediate distraction, and Tifa almost missed the way that Cloud had gotten to his feet behind her, gently pushing her forward toward the bench.

"Get on your knees," he ordered her softly.

How he could continue to issue commands with that same authority that was blended with such a sweet, caring note was beyond her at this point, but all it did was remind Tifa of the pain that lived inside of her that she needed him to silence. She did as he asked, placing her hands on the top of the bench as she knelt over it, widening her thighs and dropping her head as she waited for him to take her.

He didn't make her wait long. Only seconds passed before Cloud was inside of her again, this new angle forcing her to howl as soon as he began to thrust. It was unlike anything she had dreamt of or expected, he was so deep, piercing a part of her that she didn't even know existed. Not only did it alleviate the ache, but it began to eliminate it, chipping away at it piece by piece as his hands held her hips tight and he poured himself into her. Every twist of his hips was a reminder that he was scratching away the hurts that she had let fester inside of her soul. No matter how strange his behavior or his memory was, no matter how few words they had exchanged over this moment, and no matter the impropriety or lack of ceremony over their first time together, Tifa didn't give a fuck.

She had Cloud, her Cloud that she had loved and wanted for so, so long, and she was never going to let him go, happy to let him leave a part of himself inside of her like this whenever and wherever he wanted to.

That thought was eclipsing through her mind as her second orgasm peaked, and Tifa began to wail, tears flooding the corners of her eyes and running down her face. But Cloud was relentless, just as she had asked him to be in her whispered plea, and she hugged the back of the bench with both arms, surrendering to him as she screamed.

"Cloud, Cloud, oh! Please - "

On and on it went until she was sobbing and blubbering incoherently, her entire body falling boneless as she slid down the bench. Cloud gave up on his control and pulled out of her, messily emptying all over the concrete at his feet. Tifa could vaguely hear him pant and huff and puff, interspersed by disbelieving grunts, but she was past caring, her eyes glued shut as she felt herself collapse into sleepy bliss.

Only a few moments had passed when Cloud was scooping her up into his arms, shifting her so that he could sit back down on the bench with her again in his lap, this time with both legs swung over his so that she could lean against him. She closed her eyes again, hearing the wind whistle past, and she curled into his embrace, his body so warm and firm she could stay ensconced in his arms forever and never need anything else in life ever again.

He let a few moments transpire in silence, both of them collecting their bearings mentally and emotionally before he gently began to nudge her.

"Teef. Tifa," he called.

She finally opened her eyes, not wanting to leave the afterglow that had wrapped around them both in a thick bubble. The stern crispness of his voice brought her back to reality, dissipating the elation their connection had brought her as she remembered where they were and what they were supposed to be doing.

"Do you feel better now?" he asked her, his voice soft but serious. She had thought he might tease her about this, but he seemed genuinely concerned, his left hand rubbing the outside of her thigh gently. It made her blush, especially since, now that the high was gone, she realized just how much of her predicament he truly understood. Not wanting to look up into his eyes as he stared at her face, she nodded shyly.

"Thank you," was all she said.

He nodded, then carefully helped her up with both hands on her forearms, Tifa already flinching at the distinct soreness between her legs as soon as she moved.

"We need to get going, then. Barret is probably having a bitch fit, and it won't be long before the monsters or Shinra's surveillance shows up."

She nodded in agreement, watching as Cloud reached for his gloves and armor to pull them back on. She grabbed her shorts, then turned to him, holding out her hand.

"My underwear, please?"

He glanced down at her open palm, then reached for it, turning her hand over before bending down to press a kiss there, right above the worn leather and metal of her glove. "I think I'll keep them. A memento."

Tifa scoffed, pulling her shorts on over her boots and adjusting her skirt, not wanting to admit that it was kind of a turn-on that Cloud wanted to keep her panties.

"Hey," Cloud interjected. "It's our first time, so it's special, no matter where it happened."

She was inclined to disagree with that; now that her raging passions and desires had been covered in the balm of his affection for her, she was thinking a little more clearly. Her sensibilities were slightly affronted. She had never imagined that her first time would go down with quite the wildness and spontaneity as it had tonight.

But Cloud was at his feet, crowding close to her again, this time taking her hand in his as he bent his face down by her ear and kissed her hair.

"I'm always here for you, Tifa," he vowed quietly. "No matter what you need from me, I'll always be there to give it to you. I promise."

He backed away, his eyes glowing like turquoise beacons in the darkness. She realized that he was wearing a faint smile, one that he seemed to only reserve for her. Once again, his words were odd, and she was reminded that something wasn't quite right. But they were words, and she did her best to read between the lines, knowing that they were his way of committing whatever part of himself that he could to her, just as he had moments ago when they had been connected in the deepest and truest of ways.

She said nothing in response, only nodded, returning his smile and feeling the warmth of their bond spill over the brim of her heart. A promise renewed, he winked at her to lighten the air between them before he pulled her along in the direction of the sky bridge, back in the face of danger and destruction, soon meeting up with Barret who screamed at them both for their tardiness.

But as the hours went by and circumstances grew worse, Tifa was comforted by one thing and one thing alone.

She had Cloud.

And only Cloud could help her out of a broken place.