Disclaimer: Same as last chapter!

A/N: I know Cloud seems really OOC, but he's drunk. That's the reason. This chapter contains a bit of citrus (sorta)and a few bad words so you've been warned! Thanks to readers and reviewers!

After a refreshing shower that sobered him up a great deal, he came to find that things were exactly the same as he had left them. Just like Tifa reassured him they would be. Cloud was grateful for at least this much, and wondered how she had managed to convince Vincent not to ransack the place, sell all his stuff and turn it into a storage closet. He didn't know why, but the guy seemed really perturbed around him. It's not like they had parted on bad terms. In fact, the last time he had seen Vincent was right before he left. He was doing some business at the bar with someone who was contracted to fix up the Estate, and Cloud ran into them. They shared a friendly drink and soon thereafter he left. He wondered vaguely if things between he and Tifa weren't as great as they seemed to be. Maybe he was a threat to their seemingly well-built foundation. Deep in his heart he longed for this to be the true answer, yet on the surface, he could not admit to thinking such petty thoughts. A repetitive banging on the wall started up followed by muffled voices.

"Oh my God...this can NOT be happening when they KNOW that I'm in the room next to them!" He shook his head in disbelief and tried to curl up as tightly as possible, muffling the noises with his pillow. His mental gears set to work as they had in the bar.

He's laying her on the bed and unties the robe from about her body. With his golden claw-arm he rips through the silk shift she's wearing underneath it and presses himself against her. She slips his pajama top off and rubs his chest gently, urging him on. He throws the covers on top of the both of them and starts the motions of sharing a special night with her. She quietly utters his name and welcomes his advances. The bed pounds into the wall...

"And here I am, stuck listening to this fucking torment..." Cloud muttered under his pillow. His mind just would not give him a moment's peace tonight.

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"Why?"

The question greeted her simple and cold from the darkened room.

"I thought you were asleep?"

"Well I'm up now, aren't I? Now answer me."

''He needed a place to stay. I couldn't renegociate what I had told him earlier today."

"Damnit Tifa! You KNOW how I feel about this and yet you continue to push! It's like you're intentionally doing this to me just to see me squirm! How can you let him get in the way of us!"

"I'm NOT! You're the one who's acting like a big baby and making a fuss over him. I'm not doing anything for him that I wouldn't do for anyone! If it had been Barret, Red, even Cid! I don't know why you're making such a big deal out of something so simple! Would you have me go in there right now and yank him out of bed? Tell him to sleep on the porch and maybe we'll throw him some scraps in the morning?"

Vincent rose from his seat at the window and glowered at Tifa. He started pounding the wall with his fist while cussing loudly. Tifa screamed at him.

"Stop it! Stop it! Why are you doing this stop it right now! You'll wake him up! Stop it!" She ran to him and held tight to his arm. He whirled on her and took a step away from her.

"Do you honestly think I give a damn if I wake him up? If it weren't for my respect for you I'd go in there and kick him the Hell out myself. My God, don't you understand a single thing I'm saying? I can't take the way he looks at you! I can't take the way he treats you! After nearly two years of neglecting your very existence, and more than that of wanting you to be another woman, yet claiming he LOVED YOU, you still let him walk all over you like a welcome mat!"

She hauled back and slapped Vincent across the face.

"I can't believe you just said that to me...how dare you! You're no better, having pined after a half-dead spectre of a woman nearly all of your cruddy existence, doing ridiculous things to try and find absolution, and living like a ghost thinking that if one ghost met another things would work out!"

There was a palpable tension in the air as both parties glared at each other. There were so many ugly things that had come out just in the past ten minutes, it would be a wonder if things would be the same.

Vincent ran a hand through his black hair and sucked in an uneasy breath. He moved closer to Tifa and put his arms around her. She struggled a bit, but finally gave in and released a choked cry. This isn't the way things should have gone for the both of them. They got together to try and erase the hurt, not to play it over and over like a broken record and make it worse. He held her close and cooed. She buried her face in his shoulder and wept.

"I'm sorry...I didn't mean to say those things to you. I was just really upset. Stop crying, please? I'm so, so sorry."

While he ran a hand through her hair, she gathered herself in shuddery breaths and apologized for hitting him and saying all those mean things back.

"It's okay...let's just go to bed. Nothing is going to be resolved tonight. Everything will be fine. I love you."

He glanced her forehead with his lips.

"I love you too." She tugged on the collar of his shirt and managed to make him stoop low enough for her to sweep her wine-red lips across his own. He guided her into bed and threw the covers across them. Snuggling in close, ready for sleep, letting the sound of ragged breathing and sniffles lull them into slumber.

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(Vincent's POV)

This was absolute insanity. I cannot believe I'm letting something so petty turn me into such a monster. I'm beginning to do and say so many horrible things that it's difficult for me to imagine that I am still myself. I've only ever felt this way once before, and that was when Hojo took away from me the chance to be with Lucrecia. After that, I quelled my emotions to a degree where none of them were ever so obvious as they are making themselves right now.

Anger is such a foreign emotion to me now. So is the emotion that so often preceeds it for me lately. This emotion we call jealousy. I abandoned such things as repenetance for the realization that feelings are useless unless they can be acted upon. And I, being who I am, nothing more than a tormented shell of a man, knew that there would be no such energy from it.

Yet here I find myself acting like a jealous teenager every time that other man so much as sets eyes on her. Is it because they share a past? Or is it because I am afraid and insecure? Perhaps it is a mixture of both that make up this bitter coctail I consume. I feel as though my entire body is on fire. My soul rages. It's almost as bad as if Chaos himself were taking over.

Sometimes I think about what might have happened in the past. What kind of endearing intimacies could they have possibly shared that would make her so utterly devoted to someone who had spent all his time doing her wrong. I try not to let my imagination dwell on these unsavoury thoughts, but yet sometimes while she is away, and there is nothing to keep me company but the shadows of the house, my mind becomes wary and unhealthily curious as to what deeds were done under this roof.

I tried very hard to make a house of my own with her here, replacing all the old things with new ones, ones of our own. I even tried to convince her to take all the stuff out of the room he had abandoned, sell it and redecorate. Maybe use it for something more useful, like a guestroom if ever any of our former comrades decided to drop by. She refused saying it would be disrespectful. That he might someday be back. I figured he might return, but I didn't care one way or the other if any of his belongings were still here waiting for him dilligently. No less his, I guess what you would call, ex-girlfriend. Akward at first, but chummy as ever once the air of familiarity finally settled like the dust his arrival had roused.

I tighten my grip around the lithe yet muscular woman beside me and feel her nuzzle closer. There has to be a way to get through this in one happy piece. Things are off to a very rocky start, but sometimes the road to forever isn't always the easiest. Hell, we beat Sephiroth, conquering something as petty as our raging hormones shouldn't be that much harder.

I close my eyes as her breathing evens out. That's right, just like that, things even out if you learn to control the situation.

TBC