A/N: Hi!!! Here's to another quick update! Thank you everyone out there reading, hope you like this chapter, do let me know!

Physical Responses

"Cloud!" He barely heard someone call him in a far distance.

"Cloud!" The second time the voice started to become clearer in his ears as light started burning his eyelids as well.

He felt a cold sharp pain in the back of his head and started moving it, the coldness in the back of his neck waking him from his sleep.

"He's alive!" He heard again, the voice was close. His eyes fluttered open and he jumps up in a startle, feeling off balance as he is not laying down on his bed, but sitting up against the cold surface of the bathtub. His hands grab whatever he feels first, the toilet bowl and the coldness of the washbasin by his right, hurting the back of his hand as it hits it. But as he jumps in his sitting position so does his head, and the pain of the hangover takes over him like a lightning strike. He groans and places a palm on his forehead, grimacing.

"Oh yeah, this one is going to be a nasty one." He hears the snicker in the voice above him. He looks slowly up, trying not to make any sudden movements like the ones he did as he woke up. Ruby eyes stared amusedly back at him. "Morning sunshine."

"Get out!" He manages to say as he gets on all fours on the bathroom floor, trying to get himself up. As his hands run through the cold floor for adherence, they bump into the half empty glass bottle of the drink he stole from the kitchen. The piercing sound of the glass rolling down the marble floor rings in his ears and he cringes in pain with the loud noise.

"Oh boy, I should be filming this." Tifa laughs and tries to help Cloud get up. Feeling her touch, Cloud immediately slanted away from her, pushing her hands away with an arm.

"I'm fine." He grunts and hugs the toilet bowl for support.

"I can see that." Tifa shakes her head, straightens up and stands there watching him slowly sit on the toilet to rest from the struggle with the floor. Cloud leans the back of his head against the wall. Opens one eye and slowly turns his head to look at her. His painful look says everything. "Right. Aspirin and water coming right up."

As Tifa leaves the bathroom to get him what she's promised, Cloud tries to situate himself. There was the party, people all around, there was cake, there was a ticket? Two tickets of something? He can't remember properly, nor the sequence of how it happened. Suddenly he looks down at his chest. It was still there as if by magic, its petals still intact, in a splendid yellow color. The soft fresh smell of the flower reaches his nostrils and for a brief second it seemed to ease the throbbing pain in his head.

"Ok, drink this." Tifa is back with a glass of water and a white round pill. Cloud swallows the pill with the water and sighs, leaning back his head again. "And to think there's more tonight."

Cloud's eyes shot open with her words.

"What do you mean more?"

"Dinner with Zack?" Tifa answered, places her hands on her hips. He had forgotten. "You should get some sleep for now."

"Is she still here?" Cloud asks, a knot forming in his throat.

"Who?" Tifa raised an eyebrow at him.

"With Zack." Cloud doesn't want to have to explain all the details of what he saw or what he felt.

"You mean Aerith?" She asks and hearing her name makes his heart rate hasten, twists his stomach and makes him shiver, all kinds of physical responses he couldn't exactly prevent his body from reacting to. And he couldn't quite explain why it was all happening to him yet. "I don't know, I haven't seen him. I take it they're still asleep."

"They..." he murmurs. "So she spent the night.."

"Well, if it wasn't her, someone did, judging by the noises coming out of his room." Tifa said smirking.

"You stayed too?" Cloud held his head in between his hands as if holding it still could lessen the throbbing pain.

"Yup, in your bed, since you took the bathroom." Tifa chuckled as she watched him. "But I have to go home now, could really use a shower."

"Wait." Cloud looked at her, eyes half lid. He couldn't stay home, not while she could still be there, he didn't want to cross paths with them. But it surprised him how he, having nothing to do with it, was so uncomfortable about the pen girl having spent the night with Zack. "Can I come with?"

"Sure." Tifa blinked. "Why are you... are you trying to avoid Zack?"

"Tss, no!" He clicks his tongue and shrugs as if she had just told him something completely unreasonable.

"Huh." Tifa frowns doubtfully. "Well, do as you want, can you get up?"

"Of course." He straightens up first on the toilet seat, pauses for a few seconds and takes a deep breath. Then he gets up slowly, grimacing at the pain in his head for moving, he was going to need a lot of aspirin today.

He goes to his room first, changes t-shirts and throws on a grey sweater. He picks up the yellow flower and stares at it for a moment. Then leaves it on top of his desk.

As soon as they close the door leaving the apartment, Zack's bedroom door opens, but they don't see it.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Entering Tifa's apartment, Cloud crashes heavily on the couch, the pain alleviated slightly with the aspirin he had taken. While Tifa showers he just lays there on the couch, looking up at the ceiling, wondering why it bothered him so much that a girl he has just met had slept with his best friend. He closes his eyes, tries to sleep, but his mind keeps drifting over her green eyes, her gentle smile... he rolls over grunting.

"Get out of my head!" He groans to the air, places a pillow over his head. Suddenly his phone starts vibrating in his pocket. He reaches for it, Zack's name flashes on the screen.

Fuck...

He stares at the phone buzzing, hesitating for a moment if he should pick up the call. But it was Zack, he had nothing to do with his internal turmoil.

"Hello." He finally accepts the call.

"Cloud!" Zack's cheerful voice calls him on the other side of the phone, always so lively. "Where are you man? Woke up completely alone in here."

"Alone huh?" Cloud sits up on the couch, maybe she didn't sleep with him.

"Well yeah, I mean she left already, didn't even say goodbye this morning." Cloud hears him say and falls back down on the couch, runs a hand through his hair. "But aww man, what a night, I think I slept like three hours, she was insatiable! You know, all night long."

Cloud took his phone away from his ear by this time, letting him talk, he didn't need to hear the details. His stomach twisted again and he stared at the bathroom door where Tifa was showering thinking he might just throw up this time at last.

"Zack." He says, interrupting his friend's rambling.

"And then she just lifts her leg up-"

"Zack!!!" Cloud's eyebrow twitched while color drained out of his face.

"Oh sorry man, I'm just so hyped up. What a great birthday night, thank you so much for being here, I mean I love you buddy."

"Sure. Love you too. Gotta go." Cloud sighs.

"Wait. You're coming to dinner right? Seventh Heaven?" He hears his friend's excited voice asking.

Cloud hesitates for a moment, doesn't think he has it in him to go, all he wanted to do was crawl into a hole and lay there in the dark. But she probably wasn't going to be there, it was only for the closest to Zack. "I'll be there." He says at last and could almost hear his friend's smile over the phone.

"See you there." And Zack hangs up.

Cloud is left there alone with his thoughts. His chest tightened. Of course she would choose Zack, he was the exact opposite of him, talkative, warm, cheerful, easy to be with and Cloud was just.. Cloud. Why had he expected she would be interested in someone like him. And what troubled him most was that it was his fault for pushing everyone away. She tried talking to him, he kept avoiding her, answering bluntly. It was on him.

When Tifa came out the bathroom, her long dark hair was still damp from drying it with a towel. She sat on the couch next to the laying Cloud, he had an arm across his face, covering his eyes.

"Feeling better?" She asked.

"Not really." He mumbled, one blue eye peeked at her from under his arm.

"You seemed a little weird at the party. I mean, you're weird, but your weird levels were sky high last night." She was serious, worry in her ruby eyes.

"I'm fine." He looked at her, he didn't like to make her worry about him.

"You know I'm here if you need to talk right?" She asked and leaned against him.

"Yeah..." he said, she got closer to his face. As he didn't move, she advanced, placed her lips on his and because he didn't kiss her back, she pulled back. "Sorry... I'm not in the mood." He said, they really needed to end whatever that was.

"I'm sorry." Tifa looked away. It broke his heart to see her like that, but all he wanted was to try to sleep. "I'll let you rest. Call me if you need anything."

When she left, Cloud slept for the rest of the day, until dinner time.

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Tifa and Cloud reached Seventh Heaven together. They quickly found their table as Zack, Angeal, Kunsel and Barret were already sitting. The place was crowded, Zack had made a reservation to the restaurant two weeks in advance as it was a very popular place in Midgar. One of those new socialite dimmed lights kind of restaurant Midgar seemed to be breeding now. Zack's smile brightened as he saw the two approaching. Cloud counted the seats in the table, there was still a vacant chair after they seated.

"Aerith should be here soon." Zack informs as he watched Cloud looking at the empty seat. The blond was about half way sitting on his chair, when hearing Zack his hand slips from gripping the table and he stumbles upon the chair.

"Everything alright there?" Tifa asks him, he nods.

Just his luck, and she would be sitting right in front of him. His brow twitches, this girl was going to cause him a stroke and she didn't even know it. Why? He feels his palms sweating with anticipation and curses himself for letting his emotions take the best of him.

"Sorry I'm late!" Her cheerful soft voice rings in his ears. "Everybody is here already!"

"Don't worry we just got here." Kunsel replies from the other end of the table where he sat next to Zack who smiled at her widely, she waved him a hand.

She took her seat across from Cloud who stiffened the moment her knees slightly brushed his under the table.

She was insatiable! Zack's words suddenly take over his mind. His jaw clenched.

"Hi!" She greeted cheerfully, so warm as she looked at Cloud.

"Hennm." Was all he could express while glancing at her by the corner of his eye.

"Something the matter?" She insists as he just grunted something she couldn't understand, he shakes his head. This time she just looks down in silence, her fingers play with the cutlery on the table.

"Guys, thank you all for the wonderful night last night. Really, I wouldn't be the same without my friends, all of you." Zack says from his seat, places a hand on his chest, thankful for the people seating there with him. Cloud glances at the pen girl in front of him, wondering she must have been something really special, he had just met her two weeks ago and he was already including her in his close friends circle.

"Aging really gets you all sentimental huh?" Angeal pats the raven haired lawyer on the shoulder. "I've been there."

"I guess..." Zack scratches the back of his head, his cheeks slightly turn pink.

"Yeah but he's still the same old Zack in other matters. His energy levels are still peaking! Girls can't leave him alone.." Kunsel laughs, elbows him while smiling mischievously. Cloud shifts uncomfortably in his seat in front of Aerith. She just smiles warmly at the three friends on the other end of the table while taking a piece of bread and stuffing it into her mouth.

"Well, aging has to be gradual right? Some things must remain the same." Zack laughs nervously.

Cloud sighed, he casually opens the menu to try and hide his face from that awkwardness. Why did he say yes to this?

"Hey blond spiky, where were you for half of the night though? After you got that prize thing you vanished into thin air." Barret wasn't going to let him hide for long, his voice was loud so there was no escape.

"Cloud blacked out for a while after that." Tifa patted him on the back, making him cough. "That was after he saw-"

"I think I went to my room to rest for a bit." Cloud interrupted Tifa before the conversation got any worse.

"Yeah, we were in pretty bad shape too by the end of the night." Angeal spoke up. "Can't keep doing this for much longer Zack. You'll kill us one day."

"We had fun though right?" Zack asked, everyone nodded. "Right Aerith?" He called from all the way where he sat.

"Yeah! I had a great time! I was going to leave early but then you talked me into staying longer, it was so worth it." Aerith gave him a thumbs up, Cloud slid down lower in his seat.

"If it was that good you could have waited for him to wake up though, before leaving the house." Cloud glanced over at her, he was finding it hard to look straight at her in the eye, more than usual.

"Sorry what?" She asked, her eyes blinking in confusion.

"You know... in the morning, when you left before he woke up." Cloud shrugged, his voice frigid.

"I didn't leave in the morning. I left right after you disappeared." She said frowning, looking at him sideways.

"Oh so you're saying it wasn't you with Zack in the bedroom?" Cloud finally turned to look at her.

"You thought I slept with Zack?" She jumped up from her seat, heavily hitting the edge of the table while she stood. As the table shook, glasses spilling water around, everyone stopped talking to turn their attention at her. Even the buzzing of the people in the tables close to theirs slightly died down with her sudden bang in the table.

"Everything okay?" Zack asked, a concerned expression spread across his face.

"Yeah, sorry, I thought I saw something." She sat back down on her chair slowly. "Are you serious?" She quickly turned to Cloud, her voice a shrieking whisper. "I don't do that kind of thing. Unless I really really like the guy." Her lips pouted, her eyes went round and her cheeks flushed.

"I saw you go into his room." Cloud hesitated.

"And just because you did, you assumed I spent the night with him?" Her lips pursed as she looked at him in disbelief. "I really like Zack, but not like that."

"Sorry... l... wasn't in a very good place last night, I thought you..." Cloud's anxiety lessened as he looked at the girl, even angry she was beautiful, so innocent, guilt started to form in his core.

"I know, I was there, I saw you drink like a sponge, how's that head of yours doing today hmm?" She asked not exactly waiting for an answer, her tone of voice was angry and at the same time nervous.

Cloud was an asshole, was all he could think she was thinking that moment. He sure felt like one, but what did she expect, they had just met, he didn't know her at all. One could be wrong about someone they don't know right?

But then something happened to Cloud he wasn't quite expecting. The corners of his mouth quirked up, and she was too busy playing with her glass of water, tapping it with her fingertips, to notice. Either he smiled because of the way she looked so mad at him it was adorable or because she actually never slept with Zack in the end, he didn't know, it could be for both reasons. He shook his head.

Get it together.

"Hey Cloud." Tifa pulled the fabric of his sleeve calling for his attention, he looked at her. "Why does Aerith look so mad?" She discreetly pointed at her noticing how the girl was fuming quietly in her seat. "What have you told her?"

"Nothing, it was all a misunderstanding." Cloud answered. "It wasn't her spending the night with Zack." He whispered.

"Oh... is that good news?" Tifa blinked. Cloud paused for a moment thinking about her question. Now that he knew it wasn't her, his first thought was he was relieved, but why would he feel relieved for that? But then again, he had just spent the whole day muttering over the fact that she slept with his best-friend and how he didn't like it at all. Tifa was still waiting for his answer, he simply shrugged. Wasn't having that conversation with Tifa, especially not there.

"Hey Cloud!" Zack called, he was discussing the specials with the waiter over a menu. "What would you like to drink?"

"Water." Cloud immediately felt nauseous remembering the many mixtures of drinks he had had last night. He wasn't going to drink again soon.

"You know how you cure a hangover right?" Barret asked snickering. "It's with beer!" And he laughed aloud.

"Please no." Cloud grimaced just thinking about the taste of beer. "You're crazy."

Aerith didn't talk much to Cloud for the rest of the evening. She small talked with Barret, apparently they had a mutual interest in gardening and she talked to Tifa about going shopping some time. Aerith had moved to Midgar not too long ago so she didn't know many places for shopping. Tifa volunteered to show her around the city sometime soon.

After dinner, the group met outside the restaurant. The air was cold, being January, a chilly breeze blew while everyone said their goodbyes. Cloud watched as Zack noticed Aerith hugging herself to her coat and rubbed his hands on her arms to cause a sensation of warm friction. She laughed and shook her head. The guy really was a natural. Sleeping together or not there was an evident companionship between the two and Cloud couldn't help but warm up to how well they got along.

"Hey Cloud!" Something about the way Zack called him, made him shudder. "How about you take Aerith home? She doesn't have a ride." Cloud sighed.

"Why don't you take her?" Cloud shrugged.

"I'm going with them." Zack tilted his chin towards Kunsel and Angeal. "We're going to a bar."

"That's okay, he doesn't have to." Aerith shook her head. "I'll be fine."

"No, no, no." Zack wasn't having it that way. "He'll take you, come on man, where's your sense of chivalry?"

"Gone with my sanity..." Cloud mumbled under his breath. "Fine."

"Oh, since you agreed to so nicely." Aerith walked up to the blond after kissing Zack's cheek. Cloud rolled his eyes.

"Well guys, this was fun, we should do this more often." Tifa smiled amusedly at the pair, her eyelids drooped.

"How are you getting home?" Cloud asked her.

"Barret will take me." Tifa waved at them. "Call you later ok?"

And Cloud and Aerith were left alone on the busy street, people walking past them while they stood there for a moment in silence.

"I can just grab a taxi." Aerith said at last. "See you at work." She turned to leave but felt a firm hand wrap around her wrist, stopping her on her feet.

"My bike is this way." Cloud pointed a thumb in the opposite direction. "I'm not letting you take a cab, I'll take you."

"You don't seem very interested in taking me home..." she breathed.

"You don't know me yet. This is my interested face."

"Oh..." Aerith smiled as she noticed his hand was still holding her wrist as they walked. "You could have fooled me." She snickered. Paused for a few seconds.

"You said yet."

"Huh?" Cloud half turned his head to look back at her.

"You said I don't know you yet." She repeated. "Does that mean you're going to let me get to know you?" She beamed.

"Why do you want to know me?" Cloud stopped on his feet, let go for her wrist as if it burned his hand once he noticed he was still holding it. "I gave you nothing but plenty of reasons for you not to."

"Did you now?" Her eyes twinkled under the street lights. "Like accepting the flower I gave you, or letting me take care of you last night, or I know, this one is my favorite, being jealous of me and Zack."

His mouth fell open with her words, while his nostrils flared. "What, I'm no-" he grunted. His brain blocked the flow of information to his mouth. He shook his head, and resumed his pace. "Whatever."

She hastened her steps behind him to reach him.

"It's okay, I won't tell anyone." She clasped her hands behind her back, a playful smile graced her lips. He turned his face away so she wouldn't see his burning cheeks.

They reached his motorcycle and he handed her his helmet while he put on his riding glasses, silently. He lifted one leg up to climb onto the bike and waited for her to follow. She stared at him for a moment while she put on the helmet and sat behind him, her arms slowly wrapped around his torso. He revved the engine on, not knowing how to deal with the feeling of warmth inside his stomach as she held him so tightly around her arms.

"I live here." She showed him the location on her phone, he nodded. Thankfully the place wasn't far from where they were. She leaned her head against the back of his neck and he could feel her warm breath on his skin. He didn't know what to do to calm his emotions of her body pressed against him much longer. He turned off the engine at the gate of a huge manor on the rich side of Midgar. It was quiet, not like the central part of Midgar where cars and people polluted the quietness of the night. The street was barely illuminated by a couple of street lamps but he was able to make out a huge garden of all kinds of flowers extending from the entrance gates to the house in the middle of the property, a round fountain kept him from seeing the entirety of the house.

"Who are you?" He asked, his eyes widened in surprise.

"Ah, wouldn't you like to know?" She winked and gave him back his helmet. "Keep getting to know me and maybe one day I'll tell you. For now, I have one request." She pointed one finger up, he lifted an eyebrow.

"Say it." She smiled.

"Say what?" He stared at her confused.

"My name. I haven't heard you say it since I met you, not once."

"That important?" His expression dulled. She was the pen girl in his head because he didn't want to give her that much matter, afraid that once he gave her a name, she'd be imprinted on his skin.

"Please." She looked at him intently this time, her green eyes studying his face.

"Aerith." Her name escaped his tongue and he looked back at her, the look in her eyes intimidating him. As the wind caught her hair, his heart rate went up. His chest tightened and he felt out of breath as they just stood there in a moment frozen in time.

With that, she grinned. Reached up at him and placed a hand on his shoulder, leaned forward and kissed his cheek before he could even lift a finger to stop her.

She turned around and the gates started opening for her to go through.

He watched her walk through the garden until he lost sight of her silhouette past the fountain. He stood there frozen, feeling the warmth of her lips on his cheek.

His forehead furrowed, he looked away back at the motorcycle, he didn't like the feeling in his chest one bit.