A/N: This book is set in an alternate universe meaning it is not set in the normal ff7 setting; instead it is set in modern time.

Disclaimer: I do not own FF7 or any characters from it.

Profiles:

Cloud: A twenty-one year old college drop out. Lives in a low priced apartment with Tifa, has a dog-named Nanaki and owns a shiny purple mustang convertible.

Tifa: Owns a bar downtown that is famous for a drink she calls, the Skinny Jon that includes: Two ounces of crème de menthe, one ounce of espresso and whipped cream on the top served in a tall skinny glass. Lives with Cloud in an apartment and has a dog named Nanaki.

Nanaki: A dog with a comical attitude sometimes gets on Clouds nerves and lives with Cloud and Tifa in an apartment.

Cid: A badass rocker who is almost always on tour.

Yuffie: A hyperactive sixteen year old who won't leave Cloud alone.

Barret: An active protester who is trying to save the rainforests.

Aeris: Was killed by in a school shooting.

Vincent: A rogue mercenary.

Sephiroth: A suicidal jailbird who was originally locked up for bringing a gun to school and killing Aeris.

Reeve (Cait Sith's owner): Secretary of defense

And now, we present to you:

Clouds Dilemma

1: Where have you been?

Tifa waited impatiently for Cloud to pick her up from the bar. He was an hour late, and Tifa needed to finish her homework by tomorrow. Cloud seemed to do this every time she needed to be somewhere after her work shift. Cloud finally arrived in his slick purple shiny mustang convertible. Tifa opened the door and sat down on the leather passenger seat. Cloud did not need to ask, he could smell her anger.

"Your late again Cloud," said Tifa in an angry tone. Again, Cloud did not need to ask because he knew exactly why she was mad. "You do this every time I need to be picked up from the bar, I am so sick of it!" Cloud gulped, this was the ultimate punishment. Now Cloud would have to face a mad Tifa all night, and Tifa was not at all rational when she was mad. She would not talk to, listen to or even notice Cloud. "I hope you are happy," in truth, Cloud was not happy. Not just because he would have to face mad Tifa but because Tifa would do worse in school. Cloud knew how it felt to fail in school, because he dropped out because he was so terrible. Tifa was smart and he did not ruin school for her because he ruined it for himself.

"I am sorry I am late, I have a project I have been working on," Cloud said remorsefully. Tifa did not believe him. Cloud was too lazy to walk Nanaki, what the hell kind of project would he be working on? Could it be a TV watching project? That would be more like Cloud. But in truth, Cloud was working on a project and it meant almost everything to him. He was studying his ass off trying to get smarter so he could go back to college.

"And what might this project be?" asked Tifa skeptically. Cloud was not going to admit that he wanted to return to college because he wanted to appear on the outside to be a rebellious adult with no limits. He had to think up something to cover it up and fast! "Well I am waiting!" Tifa was not going to leave Cloud alone; she was going to nag Cloud to death until he told her something.

"Um, it's a secret. You cannot know!" said Cloud, knowing she would not believe him. Tifa rolled her eyes. She knew he would say something stupid like that. It was just in his nature. She turned her head to face Cloud. This was one of her special tricks. She would put on a mad/sad look and force it on Cloud. It had a huge success rate because it worked almost every time. Cloud looked to the side and saw the look on Tifa's face. His stomach lurched at sight of the face. He hated that face. Tifa just looked so sad and vulnerable.

"I doubt it. You are probably lying, you probably have no project that your working on at all!" said Tifa, in a saddened voice. This was just one more of her manipulating techniques, and it worked all to well! Cloud was feeling insanely guilty.

"I am so working on a project," said Cloud in defense. Tifa could tell that Cloud was caving in. A hint of remorse showed brightly on his face, in other words, he was blushing. Cloud was desperately trying to think of an excuse for why she could not know. She would never leave him alone if he didn't.

"So what is it? You can't expect me to believe you if you tell me what this project is!" Tifa protested. Cloud was letting up easier than she expected. She thought it would take hours to get him to start to give in. But she had him right where she wanted him. Cloud pulled into the parking lot in front of the brick apartment complex in which they lived in. As quick as he could, Cloud opened the car door and bailed out. He walked quickly to the entrance to the apartment complex's front door, and then entered. Tifa sighed loudly. Cloud was not going to tell her much about this project of his, if there was one. She didn't believe Cloud at all because he was always like this. Almost everyday he was late to pick her up there would be something new. But never did details come easy, there would always have to be an argument first. Tifa sighed again, and then got out of the car. She could hear Cloud talking to Nanaki through their glass sliding door, (they lived at on the second floor right in front of the parking lot). Cloud sounded desperate, he was probably begging for Nanaki to give him a better excuse.

"Nanaki, you have got to help me with something," begged Cloud, incredibly desperate. Cloud was almost one hundred percent sure that Nanaki would say no, but he had to try! "Could you go into Tifa's bag and steal her homework for me? I mean, after she had done it?"

"There is no way in hell I would do something as stupid as that! Why do you need her homework in the first place? Are you secretly still in college?" Nanaki said. He was not too happy with Cloud at the moment. Cloud looked surprised at Nanaki. He had never made Nanaki so mad before.

"Well, it's kind of like that, you see. I am working on getting back into college, and I need to know what they are studying right now," said Cloud, slightly embarrassed. Nanaki saw I different side of Cloud, the remorseful and weaker one. It was a side that Cloud barely let anyone see.

"And you don't want Tifa to know because you want to look tougher than Zack. I know you very much like Tifa Cloud, its not hard to see!" said Nanaki, who just after saying it realized he said it. He indicated that Cloud was jealous of Zack, a big time jock at Tifa's college. Tifa was in love with him, and he thought she was a hot flaming meteor.

"I am not jealous of that shit head Zack!" yelled Cloud, almost viciously. He then stormed of to the bedroom and slammed the door shut. About a minute later Tifa entered the apartment. She looked confused, she probably heard Cloud slam the door shut.

"What just happened? I heard Cloud yell something very loud then stomp off!" said Tifa, obviously worried. Nanaki was glad that she did not hear what Cloud had just yelled. Cloud was very uptight about letting people other than Nanaki know about his feelings. One time when he went to see a therapist, he ended up getting thrown out because he used too much "vulgar" language and he almost punched his therapist. "Well? What just happened?" Nanaki did not know what to say. He did not want to betray Cloud, but he had to say something!

"I'm not quite sure, he was just yelling at me for no reason, I could not understand what the hell he was saying!" lied Nanaki. He knew that was a bad lie, Tifa would most likely confront Cloud later that day. Nanaki just hoped Cloud would play along. Tifa could tell that Nanaki was lying. It was almost crystal clear. Nanaki was a bad liar; there would always be a long pause between his response and the question asked. Then, Nanaki would come up with a crappy lie that even a baby could see through.

"What do you two have to hide Nanaki? Are you and Cloud both just out to make my life harder? I just don't understand!" complained Tifa. She didn't say it but Nanaki knew she saw right through his crappy lie. Cloud probably had told her another crystal clear lie earlier, and now Tifa feels like everyone is against her. Nanaki began to wish Barret were here; he was always good at cheering up Tifa. "All right, I can't take this anymore! If you and Cloud don't stop lying to me I am going to move out!" Tifa was really angry. Nanaki knew soon enough Cloud was going to have to fess up to Tifa. Nanaki decided he would leave Tifa alone, so he sulked over to his bed then lied down. Tifa sighed, Nanaki was not going to admit to her that he lied, and neither was Cloud.

"Did Cloud tell you about the project that he is working on? It's the reason he is always late to pick you up," said Nanaki. Tifa was surprised to hear this. Cloud did not usually lie to Nanaki, did he? Maybe he was not lying to her. "When you are gone, he is either at what he calls the disclosed location which I found out to be the library or in his laboratory, also know as his room," Cloud goes to the library? What could this project be? Cloud usually hated the library! This was all to weird. Tifa decided she wanted to talk to Cloud about his project. She walked over to the bedroom door and knocked.

"Who is there?" called Cloud. In the background, Tifa could hear the sound of a backpack zipper zipping up. She opened the door to see Cloud finish closing her backpack. Her sudden anger was almost palpable. Cloud knew that he had gotten himself in deep shit. "Oh, hello Tifa, it is great to see you here. I am Rain, Clouds even twin!"

"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU GOING THROUGH MY BAG?!" yelled Tifa. She ran over to her bag then pulled it away from him Nanaki, who was in the other room sighed, and Cloud cowered in fear under his desk. Cloud now wished Tifa's anger was not palpable, for it was almost suffocating him. "WHY?!"

"Fine! I will tell you what the project is!" said Cloud. Tifa shook her head and rolled her eyes. Not this crap again. "I secretly have been trying to get back into college. I have been studying really hard everyday! I just needed to know what you were studying in math!" this struck Tifa in the head like a brick. Get back in college? Tifa had never expected Cloud to do this! He was always so badass! This was so unexpected!

"Really? You Cloud Strife want to go back to college? What happened to the rebellious Cloud who was so happy to be so free?" questioned Tifa, blinded by astonishment. Cloud began to blush.

"Shut up, is it a bad thing to want education?" yelled Cloud in defense. The surprises just kept coming in!
Tifa was seeing such a sweet side of Cloud. She could not help but smile and blush at Cloud. "What are you smiling about? Is it that funny?"

"Your so cute! This is great! I never thought you would try and do this!" said Tifa. She was incredibly proud of Cloud at the moment, she forgot all about him routing through her bag. "But why didn't you tell me?" this was a hard question for Cloud to answer. He still wanted to seem like a hot rebellious stud –muffin.

"Um, well, you see uh," Cloud was speechless. He just could not find the right words. Although, to Clouds advantage Tifa understood how he felt.

"Its okay Cloud, I can understand!" said Tifa gleefully.