A/N: Hello everyone!! Aah, this chapter made me feel so nostalgic about playing the OG... :)

So, since my vacation time sadly ended I'll have to get back to work and therefore have less time to write but I'm having such a good time with this story I'll just end up writing at night. Younger readers, there might be a light smut scene in the upcoming chapters, we'll see, it was just a small warning.

Also, I have to apologize for two things in this chapter. First, I'm sorry about any grammar or vocabulary issues, I don't have a beta reader, don't know how to get one! And second, I'm sorry about the ending of this chapter

As always, thank you so much everyone reading and everyone commenting! It makes my heart full!

Almost

Being in the middle of a desert, they had to take the cable car to reach Gold Saucer. Cloud had to apprehensively leave his motorcycle at the parking lot to the ropeway station so they could take the cable car down to the theme park. Its name was true to its appearance as it was an entirely gold-plated tower sort of structure with discs stemming from the main structure where its attractions were hold.

"This date is giving us so much trouble huh?" Aerith leaned her forehead against the cable car's glass while she looked at the approaching golden structure. "I feel like we took the day off just to get here." She giggled.

"It's fine." Cloud said. It was better to be there than at home where Zack had someone going over today, so most likely he had to leave the house if he didn't want to be third wheel.

"Thank you for taking me." She turned around on her heels to look at him.

"Sure." The cable car came to an abrupt stop as it reached the terminal station. The quivering of the car made Aerith loose balance on her feet and she had to grab his arm not to crash into the car's walls. Cloud held her arms and helped her straighten up.

"You okay?" He asked, she smiled nodding.

"I have two left feet." She giggled, his lips twitched.

The entrance of the park was themed as a big metropole scenario with tall buildings filled with neon flashing signs and screens with adds about energy drinks available in the park. The seven different attractions of the park could be visited by hopping into the respective sliding tube, which they found very innovative, and somewhat dangerous.

"What do you want to do first?" He asked and noticed how round her eyes were as she stared amazed at all the different color lights around them.

"I have no idea!" She shook her head. "Let's maybe try the arcade games first? But it's whatever you want to do too."

"It's okay, we can do the arcades." He looked around checking the square, the arcades were right on their floor.

As they searched the different arcade machines of several games to choose from, Cloud couldn't have imagined this girl would be so into these kinds of things. Her eyes immediately glimmered as she dwelled on which one she would try first, her face brightening up innocently like a child in a candy shop.

"The super dunk!" She pointed at the one with a basketball hoop. She elbowed him and winked. "How's your basketball skills Cloud? Think you can beat me?"

The blond smirked as they approached the dunking machine. They inserted one GP chip, the currency used in the park they had exchanged for gils. The machine started flashing in bright green lights and a basketball dropped down from under the hoop to roll down towards them.

Aerith went first. She picked up the basketball and holding it steady in front of her face with both her hands she shot the ball. It made a perfect arch as it flew and went straight into the hoop. As she scored the point, the machine flashed from green to yellow lights and cheering sounds could be heard from the speakers. The number of her score appeared on the screen: 89.

"Not bad!" Cloud's lips quirked up into a smile as she jumped on her feet and raised him an open hand in the air. He blinked at her for a moment as her hand was just hovering waiting for him to act accordingly. Her eyes flickered at his hesitation. "What?"

"You do know what a high five is don't you?" She tilted her head, her hand dropped down alongside her body.

"Oh..." Cloud shrugged. "So that's why your hand was doing that."

"What planet did you come from?"

"Ha!" He scoffed. "Planet perfect score in basketball, my turn." He picked up the orange ball and lifted it up in his hands. She noticed as the tip of his tongue peeked from between his lips as he concentrated on the shoot. He shot the ball and it went straight through the hoop. The machine flashed again in different colors as they waited for Cloud's score: 92.

"Hey not fair!" Aerith pouted, placed her hands on her hips. "My shot was better!"

"High five?" Cloud asked as he raised an open hand at her, a triumphant smile on his lips. She groaned and crossed her arms to her chest. She was too upset with the game to notice the change of atitude in him.

"Let's try another game." She reached for his half raised hand and pulled him towards the snowboarding game arcade. "Okay help me up?" He held her hands as she climbed onto the snowboard simulator. Cloud inserted the chip and the screen turned on showing the image of a snowy hill and a snowboarder avatar ready to copy her movements. The screen started a countdown and as it reached zero the snowboard moved under Aerith's feet. She unbalanced on top of the snowboard first and Cloud had to hold her hands until she got a hold of how the simulator moved. She pointed straight down a gentle slope and the image on the screen started gliding forward down the snow slope. She shifted her weight to the front foot and then over her toes. Moving her hips she flexed her ankles and knees, the player on the screen moved accordingly to how she moved.

"You're a natural." Cloud stared in amusement at her talented snowboarding. As the snowboarder on the screen started sliding down faster it became much more difficult to control the snowboard from hitting the trees alongside the hills as she went down. Leaning back, she wasn't fast enough to turn the snowboard and it hit a tree. She laughed and jumped out of the snowboard.

"Want to try?" She asked Cloud, her smile was beaming.

"Pass..." he said. There was no way he was going to be seen on top of that thing.

"Okay, then..." she started. "Can you get me one of those?" She pointed at a Moogle plushie claw machine. Her eyes glowed, her face illuminated as she looked at the small white plushies inside the glassed structure. He sighed.

"I can try." He examined the claw first, he knew those things were impossible to grab a prize from. They were made to take money not give prizes to their player, but he could try it for her. How could he say no to the look on her face as she asked. She inserted the chip and the machine rumbled on. Cloud took the joystick and started motioning the claw in the direction of the plushie he saw most stuck out from the bunch. Positioning the claw at the angle he thought was exactly the best one, he pressed the drop button and the claw unclenched as it fell on the plushie he targeted. It clenched its metallic fingers around the soft Moogle and for a brief second their eyes widened as it seemed it had taken a good grip on the plushie, the claw started moving back up but the Moogle fell back down onto the bundle. Aerith's heart sank.

"Let me try again." He couldn't bear to watch the disappointment on her face.

"It's okay, these things are impossible." She said, but the look on her eyes was motivation enough for Cloud to continue his quest to grab her a Moogle.

"I can do it." He said imperatively. She shuddered at his determination. This time Cloud would not let the moogle fall. He placed the claw in position, the plushie was already in a different place, easier to grab. He pushed the button and the claw dropped, clenched its fingers around the moogle and grabbed it. Aerith placed her palms on the machine glass as she expectantly saw the claw carrying the moogle barely by its foot. She gritted her teeth. It brought the plushie above the exit hole and dropped it into it. Aerith jumped in excitement and went to pick up the plushie from the compartment where it came through.

"I can't believe you did it!" She hugged the soft moogle to her chest and grinned at Cloud. "That was amazing! Thank you!"

"You're welcome." He said cooly, ran a hand through his hair, proudly.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, interrupting their enthusiasm for beating a claw machine. He picked it up, it was a message from Zack.

"How's it going over there?"

"Fine." Cloud typed.

"Kissed her yet?" Zack asked, Cloud rolled his eyes.

"I'm not like you." Cloud replied.

"You're missing out." Zack replied and Cloud placed his phone back into his pocket.

The brief moment he spent texting Zack, Cloud lost Aerith out of his sight. He looked around until something pink caught his eye. She came back to meet him holding a pink fluffy cloud around the stick in her hand.

"What is that?" Cloud pointed at the pink cotton-like ball of fluff she was eating.

"Cotton candy!" She said and took a piece from the fluffiness to hand him some. He took it a little apprehensively and smelled it first.

"Seriously Cloud." She called, green eyes narrowing as she watched him stare at the cotton candy as if he had never seen it before in his life. He lifted his eyes at her. "Just eat it."

He decided to give it a try. "Sweet!" He winced as he chewed the fluffy pink cotton and felt the grains of sugar scratching his teeth.

"Just like me!" She winked, he frowned.

"Now, we should go get something to eat and then I'd like to see the play at the theater and then... oh! The gondola ride!" She said as her eyes examined the park map they were given at the entrance.

"Something to eat? You just had that." He pointed at the wooden stick where the cotton candy had disappeared from, there was only a few gooey strings of pink sugar stuck on the stick in her hand.

"Well, rules don't apply here do they? We can do whatever we want." She threw the stick in the garbage bin and took his hand, he felt her fingers sticking from the melted sugar.

Cloud stared at her as she pulled him towards the tubes. Rules really didn't apply to her, he thought, she was a whirlwind of everything he had been restraining for his whole life, she was freedom, wildness, liberty and he couldn't help feeling that with her he could relax all the strings he had strapped around his emotions. His whole life he had plans, he had it all under his control, he had schedules, hours for eating, for working, having fun, even snacking. With her, none of that mattered. She was unpredictable and he was the complete opposite. But then again, why did he feel so drawn to her and to her energy?

Sliding down the tube, they reached the restaurant square. As he heard her tell him, she felt like eating pizza and he had agreed to it.

They sat in a table for two in a restaurant with a view towards the Chocobo racing tracks. They watched in amazement the different color birds speed racing as they started a new lap.

The whole park was overwhelming, it felt like they were in a different dimension where everything was colorful and glowing. Even the Chocobos at some point in their track, seemed like they were throttling into space.

Aerith placed her elbows on the surface of the wooden table, rested her chin on her palms and stared at Cloud, a smug smile flickered across her face.

"What?" He lifted an eyebrow at her intensive stare.

"Having fun?"

"I guess..." He rolled his eyes. "You?"

"Don't I look it?" She smiled, placed the moogle plushie on top of the table. "I'm going to name it Cloud, like his savior."

"Savior?" She didn't just give his name to a moogle plushie...

"Yes, he was trapped in that machine." She patted the moogle's yellow pompom.

"Your imagination is running wild." Cloud crossed his arms to his chest, leaned his back against his chair.

"It always is." She replied and took off

her pink jacket to lay it on her lap as she felt her cheeks slightly flushed from the warm ambience inside the restaurant. She unbraided her hair and let it cascade down her back in smooth waves of chestnut brown. "Cloud, you're staring at me again." She giggled.

"I... uh..." He trailed off in embarrassment, his mind trying to think of something to say, he had been staring too much at her lately. "I was just wondering if that jumper... was what you went shopping for with Tifa." He said and bit his lower lip, what the hell Cloud?

"Oh this?" She looked down at her garment. "Not exactly. You see..." she trailed off before saying: "I went for underwear." With that, she pushed back her chair and stood up, winked at him mischievously. "I'm going to the ladies room." And she left him with a puzzled expression on his face as his gaze lingered on her empty seat.

Cloud sat there frozen in place gawking on thoughts about her in her underwear, oh why did he ask? He shook his head and sighed in exasperation, he was having fun but sometimes he found himself thinking he couldn't keep up with her.

His phone vibrated with another text from Zack.

"Yet?"

Cloud grunted. This idiot wasn't helping either. He ignored his friend for now as she was returning from the toilet room.

He took off his jacket too, feeling his face flushed, pulled on the collar of his navy blue t-shirt. She sat back down on her chair and their eyes met for brief seconds after her triumphant slip from the table, none of them said a word but he caught a glance of the smirk on her lips and shifted on his seat. The pizza and drinks she had ordered came just in time to break the ice.

"I hope you don't mind.." Her eyes grew large as she looked at the perfect vegetables pizza in front of them. "To make it interesting, I got us two mojitos." She grinned picking up her paper cup with a straw. She shook it and felt the ice cubes hurtling inside the cold cup in her hand.

"I might just have a sip or two." The fresh memory of his last hangover made him shudder. "I still have to ride us back home."

"Okay." Aerith smiled and slurped from her straw.

Aerith ate her half of the pizza in what felt like a heartbeat to Cloud. She waited for him to be done with his and they took their cups to drink the rest of the mojitos while heading for the Event Square where the play took place.

Sitting side by side, they noticed the theater was almost empty of audience. The place was quiet in comparison to the bustling squares of the rest of the park. A sleeping man dangled his head on his chest sitting a few stools away from them and two more couples whispered some inaudible words between them as they waited for the play to start.

"I'm sure this is going to be good." Cloud said sarcastically.

"Hence the mojitos." Aerith giggled lifting the cup in her hand, her cheeks were already pink with half the drink she had. He let out a chuckle.

The lights dimmed around them and a fanfare horn echoed trough the walls in a medieval tune.

The play was called the 'Power of Love' and they sat quietly through the whole thing, well, Cloud was quiet while Aerith kept giggling at how theatrical the actors playing the dragon, princess, king and knight sounded.

As the play ended and the actors took a bow, Aerith stood up clapping enthusiastically at them.

"I loved it!" She grinned. "Although I think we would have been a great princess and knight, don't you think Cloud?"

"God no." He said, she giggled.

"I would have loved to see you play the hero." She bumped his shoulder playfully. "Ready to take on the gondola ride?" He nodded and they left for the Round Square.

The gondola ride was even emptier than the theater. The late hours had most likely driven the families home already. Cloud got their tickets from the fat chocobo cabin and followed Aerith to wait for the gondola.

"I'm really excited for this one." She glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. His shoulders tensed as the gongola came to a halt in front of them. He imagined the cabin to be small but he couldn't have guessed they would be sitting so close to each other inside such a small compartment. He had to low his head just to enter the booth. Aerith sat across from him and there was no position they could have taken inside without their knees brushing each other. The gondola started vibrating as it moved, the cable rope screeching lightly above as it carried them up the platform. They ascended slowly towards the top of the park, the view was breath-taking as Aerith leaned out the window at the millions of sparkling lights of rainbow colors glinting under and around them.

"Be careful." Cloud leaned slightly towards her, his hands floated around her back should she lose her balance and fall out the window. The gondola quivered with his sudden movement.

"I'm not going to fall." She giggled looking back at him. But as she noticed the stressful look on his face she came back in, sat next to him this time. He swallowed a knot in his throat as she sat so close to him his whole left side was pressed against her right. He scooted a little to the side but hit the gondola's wooden wall. She closed the tiny distance between them still. Huge balloons of pink and blue flew around their gondola, Aerith smiled warmly at the sight.

"You know... I never got to do things like this growing up." She said breaking the silence. "I'm sorry if I look a little childish."

"It's okay. It's impossible not to, in a place like this. " He said. He really didn't know much about her, she didn't let much out about it. "I think you're holding it out pretty good."

"You know..." she turned her attention outside. "You were a very nice surprise to me."

"Oh?"

"I thought you were just going to push me aside when I met you." She said, her hands clenched on her lap. "Didn't think I'd get the opportunity to meet you or hang out with you."

He didn't say anything.

"At first I thought you were with Tifa." She continued. "You were so at ease with her while you shut down everyone else around you. Then, I realized that it's just how you are."

"I'm sorry..." his eyes gazed out the window for an instant into the infinite lights under them.

"Don't be." She shook her head, turned to look at him. "I like it. You're a good person Cloud, pure."

Fireworks started bursting on the night sky around them in loud booms of flashing lights.

"Will you let me?" She asked.

"Let what?" His voice was barely a whisper as the fireworks illuminated the gondola behind her, the sparkling lights reflected on her hair, she didn't turn to look at the colorful explosions. Her eyes were fixed on his.

"Continue to meet you." She said, her breathing was shallow and her face leaned closer to his.

So close he could smell the warm sweet citric flavor or her mojito from her breath. In response to her question, he leaned in, intoxicated by her warmth, their foreheads barely touched. He felt his whole body heating at the proximity of her skin. His gleaming blue eyes looked down at her lips, which slightly parted under his stare. He felt her nose brushing ever so gently on his and her eyelashes tickled his cheeks as they fluttered on his skin. Their breaths came out in small gasps in the quietness of the tense moment between them. She brought the rest of his walls down in the imminence of the kiss and he sat there vulnerable, she had him to do whatever she wanted. His heart raced inside his chest and he wondered for a moment if she could hear it beat.

The gondola came to an abrupt stop, separating them in a jolt, the door cracked open as they reached the platform. They snapped out of their intimate moment and awkwardly exited the small cabin.

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

Cloud was impatient to see her the Monday after their date. The moment when they almost kissed never left his mind throughout the rest of the weekend and when Zack asked him how the date went he shoved him away and shut the door to his bedroom. He should have kissed her, he wanted to, but the circumstances didn't prove right after the gondola. A girl like her deserved a special moment, it should have been the gondola, should the ride have lasted longer maybe... he shook his head, too late now.

They were meeting for lunch in the cafeteria. He saw her sitting at the table and as he approached her, two things happened that Cloud couldn't quite explain, in the brief space of about forty seconds. The first.. why was Sephiroth, Shinra's golden CEO, stroking Aerith's cheek? His hand then caught a lock of her hair and his fingers lingered on that brown lock while he played with it slowly. It would have been weird but okay if he was her friend or something like that, but the distressful look on her face rose all his red flags up. Cloud then noticed the look on the silver-haired man's face as he stared down at her, cat-like green eyes hungrily looking at her, he licked the smirk on his lips as if he was about to eat her.

Aerith's lips pressed together in a firm line, her forehead creased, her whole body stiffened while she tried to slightly slant away from the grip on her hair.

The second thing Cloud couldn't explain was his immediate tight grasp around Sephiroth's wrist on the hand holding her hair.

"Let. Go." His words were like fire coming out of his mouth as his blood boiled feverishly in his veins.

A/N: Enter assertive Cloud.