Melodies at Midnight

by Somebody's Nightmare

Cloud's life is defined by tragedies and failures. Following the tragic deaths of his best friends, Cloud is raising their child, still reeling from the inadequacy and anger he's had since he was ripped from the girl he had fallen in love with 10 years ago, until they reunite. She was supposed to teach his son how to play the piano. Instead, she taught him how to love again.

9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

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[ ν ] - εγλ - 2007 |May 8th

At the Midnight Hour

"Love me."

Tifa's two words to him sang over and over again on repeat in Cloud's mind, ringing louder and louder like church bells as he began to slowly divest her of her remaining clothing. Her dress was open but still hooked onto her shoulders, her lacy black bra twisted up over her heaving breasts as she stared at him and breathed. Her legs were still wrapped in her thigh-highs, loose and spread beneath him on either side of his knees.

The more that he thought about it, the more that he realized that there was nothing else that had been on his mind the last stretch of weeks than that very thought. All he could think about was Tifa; it had started with his anguish over opening old wounds, moved on to his irresistible attraction to her, and had culminated with the rekindling of an old romance that had quickly burst into a new, raging inferno of affection and desire.

She didn't have to repeat those words to him, not ever. As far as he was concerned, he was going to love her until he drew his last breath, and then for eons after that.

Despite this promise written across his heart, he had to admit that all of this scared him. Everything about it did. His life was a mess. His job sucked, he was raising his dead friends' kid, had a drinking problem, and probably serious depression that would benefit from at least some sort of intervention, despite the way that he refused help whenever it was sent his way. He could barely take care of himself, and he was struggling even more so to do an adequate job with Denzel.

To take care of and provide for a woman, especially one as precious and deserving as Tifa, was another matter altogether.

But a chronically ill woman? Cloud knew there was no way that he could possibly live up to her expectations or be worthy of taking care of her.

Despite this, looking down at her shining red eyes, the starlight hitting her skin from beyond her open curtains, Cloud resolved that no matter how damaged and useless he might truly be, he would do his damnedest to try.

"You okay?" he asked her softly after they had been staring at each other for long moments, their eyes locked together.

Tifa just nodded in response, and Cloud realized that she had reached up one hand to gently grip his forearm, holding onto him in a tight and possessive grip. Something about the affectionate and warm hold stirred his blood up again, and he could feel his heart beginning to pick up new speed.

Cloud noticed that Tifa's face and hair and her dress were still caked with the residue of her star-tears, wispy trails of glittering gold and silver dust that had begun to transfer to her bed. He realized that it was still all over his hands, too. He sat back on his knees for a moment, thinking quickly as his eyes scanned over her thoughtfully, before he gently reached forward and lifted her to his chest, holding her close and not missing the way that she instantly curled in close to him, almost instinctively.

He ran his fingers through her hair, staring at the sparkles and wondering how the stars could shine their hurt right inside of a person so that it bled out of her eyes this way.

"Teef, I think we should clean up a little before bed," he said softly. He wanted so badly to make love to her again, right there and right now, desperate to exchange tender touches after his passion had burst forth so exuberantly. Nonetheless, it didn't feel right to sully her bed with the evidence of so much pain and to not address what had happened.

She looked up at him again, sliding her hand a little higher and then curling her fingers into his bicep.

"Okay. My bathroom is right next door."

She nodded toward the door, then started to climb away from him to get off of the bed. But Cloud was instantly lifting her, sliding himself to his feet with her in his arms, his instincts to care and protect in hyperdrive.

"I can walk, Cloud," she teased lightly, and Cloud could hear that she was still out of breath.

"It's okay," he whispered, carrying her into the master bathroom right outside of her bedroom door in the hallway.

He stepped inside the darkness, and while his eyes began to adjust, the mako igniting with its faint green glow, Tifa reached over his shoulder to flip the lights above the vanity on. They washed the room in a pleasant, yellow glow, not as bright as the overhead fluorescents would have been, and Cloud scanned the comfortably but modestly sized room, finding her tub against the wall beneath a small, curtained window.

Gently, he set Tifa down on her feet, stopping only to brush her hair out of her face, their eyes connecting for another brief moment, hers still undergirded by a sedimented sadness but filmed over with hope. He offered her a smile, then eased her toward the closed lid of the toilet and sat her down.

"Hold on a second."

Tifa made an amused sound, shrugging her shoulders out of her dress and dropping it to the floor in one corner while Cloud tried to figure out the temperature settings of her tub, fooling with the knobs. He let the water run comfortably hot, then got to his feet and carefully looked around for some things to make this a little more accommodating.

"Everything is in that rack, Cloud," Tifa told him softly, gesturing to a metallic tower in one corner of the shower that was stocked with bath products.

Cloud nodded and found the bubble bath along with a few other items, and after he added it to the water, he turned back to Tifa, getting to his knees in front of her. Slowly, he brought one hand up to the hem of her left thigh-high, fingers curling around the stretchy black fabric and brushing over the warm, fleshy expanse of her skin before he gently began to roll it down.

He looked up to find her smiling at him as he went, and he couldn't stop himself from returning it, feeling a pleasant heat bubble up inside of him and spill over at the way that she was yielding and letting him care for her. He turned his attention back to her shapely leg, running the nylon all the way down to her ankle, moving slowly and methodically as he went. He carefully pulled it away from her foot, dropping it to the pile with her dress and admiring her pretty, painted pink toes that matched her fingernails.

With a feather's touch, Cloud ran his hand up the inside of her calf, testing the softness of her flesh that he could feel and the firmness of her muscles beneath. She shivered as he skirted over the back of her knee and drew nearer to her inner thigh, slowly widening her thighs apart where she sat on the seat until Cloud could see her naked, spread center in front of him again.

It turned that calm warmth inside of him into a burst of flames, and he tried to push back the desire to grab her and push her down on the floor to the side, instead pulling his hands away from her flesh and his eyes away from her pink seam so that he could concentrate on pulling away her remaining thigh high.

Her bra was the last to go. Cloud reached behind her back and let his fingers fumble with the clasps until they came undone, dragging the lacy black fabric over her arms and dropping it away to the side while Tifa stared down at him and blushed.

"You're a little overdressed," she commented lightly.

Cloud smirked, getting to his feet in front of her. He took a step back, pulling his undershirt over his head with one hand before dropping his hands to his pants to undo and kick them away along with his shoes and socks. When he was fully undressed, Tifa's eyes were slowly traveling his body, running lines along his chiseled arms and well-defined torso, pausing at the narrowness of his waist and hips before dropping even lower.

Feeling his cheek redden, Cloud reached over to turn the tap off and then extended a hand to Tifa. "Come on," he beckoned her softly.

She got to her feet, and when Cloud wrapped his arm around her, pulling her toward the tub, she fell naturally into his embrace. The innate intimacy of their synchronous movements woke something deep and dormant inside of him, something that he had been longing for and needing for the better part of a decade.

It was the feeling of being wanted, of being needed.

He stepped into the tub first, backing up before he carefully helped Tifa step inside. Steam rose around them like warm, puffy clouds, further highlighting her creamy skin with a pretty pink flush. He turned her so that her back was to him, and then he pulled her down with him, settling into the tub with his back against the wall and his knees on either side of her, Tifa instantly submerging herself up to her shoulders as she leaned back against him and let him hold her.

They stayed like that for long, silent moments, Cloud wrapping his arms around Tifa's shoulders beneath the bubbles and holding her to his chest. Her hair pooled into the water like black silk, its threads tickling his skin as she leaned into him and sighed. The heat sank its way into his pores, soothing old aches in his muscles that he had grown so accustomed to that he had begun to ignore them completely. He wrapped his hand around the front of her body, finding hers floating against her belly, and he dropped his fingers to hers, brushing them across the tops of her supple hands.

"Tifa."

She hummed in response, already sounding sleepy in the circle of his arms. Cloud knew that it was late - probably after midnight - and they'd already had a long and emotional night. Even so, his mind was beginning to burn with the advent of the questions that were assailing him, so many pieces he wanted to fit together, a decade separating them that he now needed to somehow bridge and then eradicate.

"How long have you…?"

His words trailed off again, dying deep in his throat, and Cloud glanced down at the top of her head, wincing at his own cowardice. He shook his head, fighting to get the words out, but Tifa was already shifting slightly in his lap, turning so that the side of her face lay against the inside of his chest.

"I've had Star Scar for almost five years," she responded, threading her fingers through his until both their hands were holding each other's. "It's why I had to stop playing professionally."

"I'm sorry, Tifa," Cloud responded, feeling a hot stab through the center of his heart. He remembered how much Tifa had wanted to play the piano, how she had rested so many of her hopes on that one simple dream to move to Midgar and attend a prestigious school and become famous. And she had achieved it, only to have it snatched away by something she couldn't control, by her own body attacking itself.

Cloud had never strived for much of anything. He never had any dreams. He had been uninspired most of his life, letting the world carry himself where it would. The most effort he had ever put into anything had been getting into SOLDIER, but as soon as he had aged out of his combat usefulness and been relegated to contract work, he'd become more disillusioned than he'd ever been.

He wondered what it felt like to have so much of what you'd always wanted and had worked so hard towards disappear through your fingers like sand.

"There's nothing to be sorry for," Tifa answered. "After what my mother went through, I should have known this was going to happen to me one day."

Cloud thought about that for a moment, curling the tips of his fingers across the inside of her palm, relishing in how soft the skin there was, further supple by the hot water. He remembered her mother's illness vividly, the screaming and the crying and the destruction, and he remembered most of all her death, the blood and stars and the way that Tifa had fallen off of a mountain hours later.

The hot spike of fear returning to the center of his gut, Cloud felt his throat tighten with pain that made it almost impossible to speak. "Is it like that with you?" he asked tentatively, his arms tightening around her and holding her even closer to his body, the water sloshing quietly around them. "Is it like how it is with your mom?"

"Not yet," Tifa replied, and Cloud hated the way that the sadness was such a heavy shroud over her voice. "My symptoms have mostly been physical… pain, weakness, sporadic myopia. I… have mood swings, sometimes, but nothing like the way my mom would get. My doctor has helped me manage it really well these past few years."

She sighed again, but the gears in Cloud's mind were turning as he considered her words. He tried to remember what he had learned all those years ago in school about this horrifically beautiful disease. He knew that it was hereditary, but he also knew that it emerged from triggers. Thinking about that with a rising sense of panic, Cloud lifted a hand to her chin, suds and water dripping from his palm as he turned her face to look up at him.

"What caused this?"

His heart was beating too hard and too loud, especially as Tifa looked into his eyes, her own dark crimson orbs widening at the question before she quickly looked down and away from him, turning back to settle into her previous position. Feeling his breath climb and then fragment, Cloud waited long, eternal moments for Tifa to speak again, wondering if he hadn't overstepped a line or brought up something that they might both regret staring in the face later.

Finally, she spoke. "My mom got sick because of my dad," Tifa explained, her voice very small and very soft. "They… had a lot of problems. I didn't really understand it then, but my dad drank a lot, and he strayed from home sometimes, and he did things that really made my mom upset. That's what got her sick."

Another pause, and Cloud was sitting with his thoughts, thinking again about Tifa's words to him on the piano just a short time ago.

Did I cause this?

"Tifa…"

"Cloud," she interrupted him at once, shaking her head so that her long, inky hair spun and wove through the bathwater. "I brought this on myself. When we separated, it broke my heart. But it was my fault for not standing up to my father and for letting him force me to break up with you. So when I got sick, I knew why it was happening. I had thought all my life that I could avoid my mother's fate… but that first night, those first tears… when they finally hit, I knew that it was all over."

Cloud closed his eyes and let the back of his head hit the tile behind him, his mind beating with the urgency of new thoughts as he tried to climb his way through what she was telling him. He felt a new sense of guilt swell up inside of him, and he shook his head, sitting up again and pulling her even closer.

"This isn't your fault, Tifa," he told her, ducking his face close by her ear, gently pressing a kiss against her hair. "We were just kids. But I'm here now, and I'm not leaving. I'll do anything I can to help you get better, Tifa."

She nodded against him, accepting, and feeling a little of the anxiety recede, Cloud kissed her again and then squeezed her hands in his.

But then she turned again to look up at him, disrupting the suds they were submerged in. "Promise?"

Cloud caught her eyes, his heart picking up its staccato timbre again, echoing in his chest. His lips parted, remembering the last time they had shared that word between them and the way that it had ended.

"More promises?" he questioned, and he could see the way that Tifa's eyes wavered before she looked down.

"Never mind, I sh-"

"I promise," he said quickly, holding her tight again and pressing her as close to him as she could go. "I'm here, and I'm going to take care of you. Whatever it takes."

She nodded, a purr escaping her lips and echoing into his chest. Cloud felt a sense of relief wash over him, though he wondered what, exactly, he had just gotten himself into and how he would ever measure up to the promise he had just made when so much of his life was already an incomparable disaster.

He pushed that thought aside, though, intent on making good on his words, starting now. He reached for the bath items he had brought to the side of the tub, first lathering a soft bath sponge with some of Tifa's cherry-blossom soap, turning her to face him again so that he could carefully wipe away all of the star-tear shine that remained on the crests of her cheeks.

With that out of the way, Cloud let her turn again and began to gently wash her body, running the soap over her front with a firm caress, pressing the sponge into the skin of her arms and breasts and torso. He kept his movements as innocent as possible, though when he brushed between and over the tops of her thighs, working back and forth in the direction of her knees, he felt himself stiffen again, painfully so when she quietly moaned and rolled her head across his shoulder.

He swallowed back his desires and pushed her forward and washed her arms and shoulders, making sure all of the painful sparkles were rinsed away. When her skin was shining, Cloud took a moment to carefully wash the stuff away from his own skin.

When he finished, he lathered thick amounts of Tifa's jasmine scented shampoo in his hands and ran his palms through her thick, dark hair, working his fingers between her strands to clean away all of the glitter that had caught there. Dipping her hair into the water and cupping palmfuls over the top of her head, he marveled at how much hair she actually had, how its weight was so heavy in his hands, especially when soaked through with water like this. He had admired her hair since he had been eighteen years old, those long, silky chocolate brown tresses one of the first things he had noticed about her when he admired her from afar at his mother's kitchen window the first day that they had moved back to Nibelheim. Anytime they had spent together thereafter, Cloud never missed an opportunity to reach out and touch her hair, to run and tangle his fingers through it or simply brush it out of her eyes.

He massaged the tips of his fingers into her scalp much the same way that he washed his own hair, feeling a new sense of serenity pass over him when Tifa cooed quietly and craned her neck to one side. He gathered all of her locks into one hand and squeezed away the excess soap, rinsing her hair over and over again with fresh warm water from the spout until it ran clear.

He combed his fingers through her hair to work out the tangles he'd created, and that effort took more time than he'd expected. By the time her hair was clean and smooth, Cloud was eager to get out of the tub, the warmth of her body against his along with the words they'd exchanged turning up the fire in his blood.

They rinsed each other clean a final time before Cloud helped Tifa step out of the tub, handing her one towel for her body and another for her endless black rivers of hair. He dried himself, and as soon as they were both wrapped in their towels, Tifa had her hand in his and was leading him back to her bedroom.

Cloud could only follow silently behind her, his eyes once again falling to her womanly hips, wrapped tightly in pale blue terrycloth, so eager to work them beneath his own. He tried to keep his thoughts from falling too dark and too lustful, the impurity of his desires eclipsing his better senses and his promise to be caring, already beckoning him to rip her apart with all of the savageries he had been trying to keep a lid on for ten years and had already let free just an inkling.

She sat on the bed, shaking her still damp hair loose from the towel she'd wrapped around it to soak up the excess water and tossing it to the side. Now that they were both fresh and clean, her skin was pale and flushed red from the warmth of the bath, and the air between them was thick with the scents of her soap and shampoo. Cloud could only sit beside her, heart a stampede, his eyes locked again with Tifa's scarlet. He wanted to reach for her, to begin to unwind her in the many ways he was already architecting in the back of his mind. But there was something in her eyes that told him to wait as she stared up at him, and so he did, studying her face carefully until she finally leaned forward to reach for his hand and clasp it in both of hers.

"Cloud?"

"Yeah, Tifa?"

"…Thank you."

Cloud wasn't sure what she was thanking him for, and he definitely knew that he didn't deserve such sentiments, least of all from her. But she was smiling at him, a look that betrayed a happiness both of them had grown so rare to display, and for him, it was enough to unravel all of the hurts the world had left between them.

"Don't thank me yet," he simply responded, dropping her hand and crawling toward her, his towel falling away as he pushed her down onto the bed and opened hers.

Tifa closed her eyes, craning her head to one side and exposing the full length of her slender neck. Seeing that flash of pale skin, Cloud hovered over her, carefully laying his body atop hers and leveraging some of his weight on his elbow to avoid crushing her too hard. He looped a palm around the back of her neck, holding on to her in a tight grip as he dropped his lips to her jaw and drew a line of open-mouthed kisses down the expanse of her throat.

Tifa fell open under him, her knees parting and then lifting to either side around him, widening the angle of her hips with a moan. He stopped his succession of his kisses, peering down between their bodies just long enough to glance down at the perfect shape of hers before he looked up again and lifted her head gently with his hold on her neck to kiss her lips.

It began tenderly, Cloud feeling nothing but pure affection for the woman who was cradled under the protective shell of his body, wanting to keep her sheltered and safe and happy. But the feeling of her mouth on his again, too soft and too hot and too wet at the seam was enough to set his earlier wildness loose again. Her tongue looping around his had him kissing her even harder, sucking her lips between his violently while his free hand began to travel up and down the curve between her rib cage and her hip, squeezing as he went until her skin grew red under his eager grip.

She was moaning into his mouth, rolling her hips beneath him the more that they kissed and the more that his hands maintained their possessive hold on her body as he pinned her under him. He felt her drag the balls of her feet across the backs of his calves, bending her knees as she lifted her hips until he could feel a subtle brush of her wetness against his shaft that was already beginning to leak onto her sheets. Groaning in response to these dual sensations, Cloud let Tifa hungrily nip at his bottom lip before he pecked her sweetly a few times and then drew back.

"How are you feeling?" he asked her, looking down into her eyes again. They were low-lidded, her vermillion irises thin crystal discs around her pupils, her lashes a dark, curved curtain over the entire wet shine. Her lips were swollen and parted, bright pink and blood-rushed, her breath escaping in tiny puffs as she tried to catch her breath.

"Good," she whispered, holding him closer to her with both arms around his shoulders, one hand splayed across the center of his back, the other with her fingers tangled into his hair. "But Cloud, please. I want you… so, so bad, I -"

"Shh," he whispered, leaning in closer to her ear. "I'm going to take good care of you, okay? Just relax. Close your eyes, and breathe, Tifa."

She nodded, exhaling a little bit as he sat up, handing all of her trust over to him again just with the look in her eyes alone. It reminded him of how she had looked up at him one warm spring night under the stars, after her eighteenth birthday, when he had thought their fates were sealed in those same celestial lights above and that nothing could ever shear through them.

Cloud pushed that thought aside, finding no place for the past here. He brushed a thumb over her bottom lip, forever enamored by its poutiness, then reached for an extra pillow at the head of her bed. Sliding away from atop her body, he gently lifted her hips with both hands and positioned the pillow under her before he settled himself between her thighs.

Realizing what he was about to do, Tifa's eyes brightened, and she brought her hands up to her face, covering her mouth with one and tucking the other under her chin while she stared down at him.

"Cloud…"

But he only smiled at her, ready to spoil her.

Wrapping her thighs around him with his arms under them and his hands reaching for her belly, Cloud started by placing soft, wet kisses to the insides of her thighs in languorous, up-and-down trails. He moved slowly, letting his tongue occasionally dart out to swipe at a particularly sensitive strip of her skin, sometimes even gently sinking his teeth into her fleshiest parts. Tifa trembled beneath the tender workings of his mouth, a breathy sigh escaping her lips even though she remained mostly silent. Not intending to keep things like that for long, Cloud nuzzled his nose against the tight crease of her inner thigh, producing a giggle and then a gasp from her throat as he darted his tongue in a line along it.

He was finding himself becoming lost in the headiness of her aura, feminine and fresh and sweet, tangling him in arousal as he tried to concentrate and breathe when the air in her lungs began to escape in ragged, broken puffs. He growled against her skin as he moved closer to her center, looking up again to find her eyes almost closed, but not fully. He could see the barest hint of bordeaux watching him beneath those thick black lashes, shyly observing his every action and movement. It made him smile, heat blossoming in his chest as he realized that despite her diffidence, she wanted him and the pleasure he could pull out of her.

He focused his attention on the wet, pink invitation bared in front of him, bringing one hand down to spread her lips apart and drink her in. Cloud had never really been this up close and personal with Tifa before; when they had been teenagers, their few times together had been uncoordinated and sloppy, if not passionate. But now, he was becoming acquainted with Tifa in a new way that had his heart beating faster and faster, ready to vacate his chest.

Cloud had tried to move on with other women over the years. He'd dated a few and had gotten reasonably far with them, but there was always a bridge that he couldn't cross.

Because of her.

Glancing up at her as she grew wetter under his appraisal, leaking over his gently probing fingers, he knew that it was affecting her too, because she was now covering her entire face with both hands, her body shivering as she rocked her head back and forth across her pillow.

Suddenly, Cloud had to know if it was the same for her as it had been for him all this time, even if it was a wildly stupid question to ask at this moment. He had to know if anyone else had even been as close to her as he was now.

"Tifa," he whispered up at her, his breath warm over her already hot skin, one hand rubbing the outside of her thigh affectionately while the other kept her spread open with his fingertips. "Since we were last together, have you… have been with anyone…?"

He let his words trail off, his eyes glowing in the darkness of her room as he stared up at her. A moment passed, and she peered at him between her fingers, finally lowering her hands from her face to shake her head slowly at him.

"No… Cloud. You've been my… my only one."

It was probably stupid how much Cloud's heart swelled inside of his chest at those words, so much so that he felt a pressure that made it harder to breathe. It was also probably stupid how warm his cheeks grew or how widely he grinned up at her, causing her to blush even harder than she was already before she tittered nervously and covered her face again. But seeing her embarrassment rise, Cloud pressed another kiss against her thigh and then reached up with both hands to grab her forearms and lower her hands from her face, pulling them to either side of her hips as he laced his fingers through hers, locking both their hands together.

"Good," he finally replied, wetting his lips with his tongue and watching as her eyes widened just a little bit. "Same for me, Teef. You've always been the only girl for me."

The way that her eyes softened and her lips trembled at his words made his insides melt, and Cloud could only return that look of love with one of his own, the faintest hint of a smile pulling at his lips as he winked at her and then lowered his mouth to her dripping core.

He heard Tifa gasp as soon as his lips touched her, his first kiss pressed right below her clit where her lower lips began to spread apart. Her body tensed up above him, brows furrowing as she blew out a short breath of air, her lungs forcing her breasts to shift and wobble as they expanded in search of air. Cloud squeezed both of her hands reassuringly, pinning them to her sides with the weight of his forearms keeping her thighs open and in place as he dipped his tongue out and began to run it up and down the length of her spread, leaking pussy in long, hot stripes.

Cloud had forgotten how strong Tifa was, remembering her training with Zangan now that she was struggling against him with all of the hidden power in her muscles, trying to shut her legs around him and push off the bed as he lapped slowly and tenderly at her folds. But despite this, her strength was not quite the match of a SOLDIER's, and he kept her in place, though her effort did force a thin line of sweat to erupt across his forehead. Somehow, her struggle was an even bigger turn-on, especially when he dipped his tongue inside of her tight entrance and she let out a loud, raspy moan, her hands squeezing his again.

She tasted so good, sweet and bright and honeyed and thick, her arousal a steady but slow stream that leaked into his mouth and coated his tongue. She was so wet and so eager, and he hadn't even gotten to the good part yet, the part that he knew would drive her wild and split her apart right under him. The longer that he hovered there, gently probing in and out of her with his tongue firm but soothing, the more that she purred and whined, soon throwing herself headfirst into the sensations until she was begging. She gasped, leaning up to stare down at him with her eyes glassy, her pupils so wide he could barely see her cherry-red irises.

"Cloud," she huffed his name, the sound so raspy and thin that he felt himself leak onto her sheets, his own desire becoming too much to contain. "That feels so good… but…"

"Hmm?" he hummed against her skin, withdrawing his tongue from her needy, clenching heat and rolling it along her rim, pressing kisses up and down her folds again. "But what, Tifa? What's wrong, sweetheart?"

He was too in love with her and it was making even his words grow wilder than he'd ever heard them, now so deep in the high of his passion for her, her scent driving him to the sweetest of lunacies. A deep, hidden part of him was growing dark and ruthless, wanting to force her to beg and plead and use every one of her filthiest words to tell him what she wanted, but he suppressed it, remembering that this was Tifa and that he would never do anything to make her uncomfortable. Instead, he kept kissing her over and over again, inching just a little bit higher, squeezing her hands again to encourage her.

"Please," she wheedled, her voice high-pitched and thin, "Please stop teasing me, Cloud."

She looked like she was on the verge of tears, her eyes pinched shut and her brow furrowed, her mouth open as if ready to wail. All of it was enough for him. He kissed his way higher, stopping when he reached her clit, a tiny pink nub that had been hard and waiting for him, her entire core clenching and quivering as he laved his affections on her.

She whimpered as soon as he wrapped his mouth around it, dropping the flat of his tongue just under it as he began to suck. It didn't take long for her sounds to quickly escalate, whines turning into bright shouts, the fiery strength in her body forcing her to writhe roughly beneath him, her hips lifting off the bed. Her hands were bending his fingers back, and despite the pain of her grip, Cloud was careful and held his grip firm against hers without hurting her in response. His arms kept her down, and he focused his attention on her clit, the sounds she made above him as he suckled and nipped and licked at her tender, sweet little button his guide.

"Cloud, Cloud, Cloud…. Please… oh, please, Cloud, I can't… I.. Cloud… Cloud please..."

Her chants and cries were like music to his ears, notes of a different sort struck by his longing and love for her against the keyboard of his heart. He kept up his assault until she was sitting up and sobbing his name viciously, staring down at him with tears in her eyes. They were clear and watery, much to his relief, and Cloud sucked her harder and rolled his tongue over her nub in a long drag, wanting to see them spill.

They finally did after a moment, Tifa throwing her head back with a final cry of his name, her entire torso sheened over with sweat, her breasts heaving, her legs trembling as she wept and struggled through her climax. He stilled his mouth, watching her the entire time, his heart rate dangerously high as he drank in how fully he was able to lay her to ruin with the simplest devotion from his mouth.

She fell back against her pillow, still stuttering through her tears, which had fallen at last and were lining her cheeks. His hands now painful and achy, Cloud gently let go of her and pulled his mouth away from her flesh, sitting up on his knees above her as he wiped his mouth and licked his lips clean of the last of her release. She'd soaked half of his face and leaked all over the sheets, and Cloud now couldn't wait to dive inside of her again, every intention in his mind to make love to her the entire night through until one or both of them couldn't take it anymore.

That thought reminded him of the painful stiffness between his thighs, and he crawled forward, pushing her thighs back as he went. Blindsided by this advance, Tifa, who was still blubbering and trying to recover, opened her eyes to look up at him in surprise.

"Shh," he whispered, leaning in to kiss her under her eyes, before dropping his lips to hers in another tender kiss, swallowing the last of her whimpers and cries. He pulled away to cup her cheek with one hand, brushing his thumb over her skin.

"You okay, sweetheart?" he asked her, his voice so soft and so low, barely a whisper that skirted over her throat as he leaned in to press another kiss just below the dangle of her earring.

"Yes," she breathed, finally beginning to catch her breath. Cloud began to kiss her mouth again, sharing her sweet flavors back with her, raising her left knee above his shoulder as he reached down and guided the hot, achy tip of his cock to her entrance.

He broke the kiss long enough to look down into her eyes, finding them still wet and eager and stunned from the way her nerves were already raked thin by her orgasm. Everything about her face and the way that she looked up at him was beautiful, and he smiled at her, dropping one arm above her head as he crowded her close to him, the other keeping her leg raised as he slowly slid inside of her.

"I love you, Tifa," he whispered into her ear, and she opened her mouth to respond, only to have it come out in a choked gasp as he fell deep inside of her, holding her to him as he rocked back and forth, his hips dragging a slow grind.

He bit his lower lip and hid his face in the crook of her neck, not wanting to cry out at the sensation of Tifa clenching hot and tight and wet around him. His second time inside of her that night and in the last decade, and he moved slowly this time, wanting to savor every feeling and make it last forever. Tifa's arms were soon wrapped around him, holding him tight to her as she began to moan, this time her melodies husky and deep and dark.

He let the sounds drive him to madness as he worked himself inside of her, feeling her walls grip him, her nails soon scraping across the skin of his back and breaking it open as she mewled. He didn't mind; he'd be happy to let her tear him apart anyway that she wanted to as long as she was content. He groaned into her shoulder at the sensation, relieving the pressure he felt by biting gently into her skin, and Tifa keened into his ear, tightening around his length again.

He huffed when her moans grew brighter and became interspersed with wails of his name, and Cloud knew that she was close. Pushing her leg back even further until her ankle was above her head, he propped himself up on one hand and leaned over her, staring into her eyes as he picked up speed, his thrusts dragging all the way out of her before slamming fully back in.

I…

Love…

You.

He didn't realize that he was repeating the words over and over again in raspy breaths between chants of her names, not even sure if she could hear him over the way she wailed until her orgasm hit her. All he knew was that he couldn't stop, not when she clenched up around him and not until he met his own release, finally feeling himself tighten and spasm before he came deep inside of her.

It was only after he'd collapsed on top of her, unable to hold himself up any longer, did Cloud realize how hard Tifa was pulling at his hair. He winced at the pain, but she soon let go, her grip loosening as her fingers slid away and came to rest at the back of his neck instead, still holding him tight.

It was quiet for long moments, nothing but the sounds of their heavy breathing echoing through the room. They were both sheened with sweat, their bodies stuck to one another, and Cloud realized idly that neither one of them could move.

He didn't intend to. He was perfectly content with Tifa snuggled beneath him still holding his now soft and spent length inside of her, her legs having lowered to circle around him and keep him close. Returning her embrace, he wrapped his arms around her, shifting slightly to his side so that he could take his weight off of her but still hold her tight.

"Cloud?" she whispered after long moments had passed, her breath still rough.

"Hmm?" he hummed against her shoulder, nuzzling into her skin, loving her scent that was blended with the aftermath of their lovemaking, her hair curtaining around them in a silky mist.

"I love you, too," she whispered, saying those words back to him for the first time in a decade. "I never stopped."

It made his heart jump a little, and Cloud just smiled at her, snuggling her closer to him, resting his chin atop her head, his fingers tangled in her hair again as he closed his eyes.

And he vowed to himself that this time, their promise would not ever be broken, not by them and not by anybody else.

[ ν ] - εγλ - 2007 |May 8th

Replenished

For the second time, Tifa Lockhart found herself waking up beside Cloud Strife, wrapped tight in his arms. Only this time, they were both completely naked, and they were in her bed, Cloud's quiet breathing ghosting over her hair as he snoozed.

Tifa shifted slightly, turning her body so that she could get a better look at him while he slept. With his eyes closed and his yellow hair haloing his face, his normal frown lines evaporated from his forehead, he not only looked so peaceful and content but so, so young. He reminded her of the boy who had moved in next door to her all those long, faraway summers ago, the boy she had fallen in love with, the boy whose heart she had broken and whose now she had a second chance to embrace.

Feeling a distinct soreness between her thighs, Tifa smiled, remembering the night before, her breakdown on the piano and the way that Cloud took her without mercy against it before they washed away all over those old hurts that were hidden in starry sparkles in her tub. She remembered the soothing affection of his mouth and the way that he had laid on top of her, and feeling a burst of adoration, she curled in closer to him, craving the warmth of his body as she lifted a hand to gently trace her fingers over his cheek, still admiring him in his sleep.

A moment passed before Cloud's eyes slowly opened, pupils dilating against the sunlight that streamed in from her window across the room. Tifa was so close to him that she could see the myriad of colors that made up his eyes and the shimmering, deep cerulean blue that cascaded through highlights of aqua and cobalt. But it was the jade green rim that entranced her, had her eyes locked with his as awareness slowly came back to him, stirring him as he woke.

Tifa remembered the first day that she had met Cloud Strife, standing under the awning of a jewelry shop in a pouring summer rainstorm in Nibelheim. The first thing she had noticed had been his eyes, bright and shining blue. Back then, there was no emerald glow infecting them; they had been the same color as the desert bluebells that grew along the orchids in the valleys that bordered Mt. Nibel.

Now, though, they had changed, shaded by the evidence of his years living a life she hadn't been a part of for so long. Staring into those deep ultramarine eyes, Tifa knew that she would not let the years and space change anything else, that she would love him no matter what the color of his eyes was.

"Morning," he said groggily when his eyes focused, lips spreading into a smile to match hers.

"Morning," she whispered back, now combing her fingers through his hair. "Did you sleep okay?"

He was grinning now, throwing his arm back around her so that he could draw her in close, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Look who I had to sleep next to all night. What do you think?"

Tifa felt her cheeks warm, and she bit her lip and pulled away, shaking her head in response. But Cloud was already on the move, lifting up to an elbow and grabbing her to pull her in close to him.

"Hey, come here," he said softly, pulling her body over his.

Tifa let him guide her, her hair spilling around them in ebony waves, thick and soft and clean. She remembered the way that he had washed her hair so tenderly the night before, and the memory warmed her, spurring her to center herself with her legs straddled around his hips as she laid down over him to embrace him.

"You're so soft," Cloud whispered by her ear, his fingers getting caught in the tangles of her hair again. "Your hair is too. I love the feel of it."

"Thanks for washing it," Tifa responded, laying her head on his chest, hearing his heartbeat echo up at her, steady and rhythmic. It was soothing, and she found herself closing her eyes as she listened, curling her fingers into the soft flesh of his shoulder. She was so content curled up on top of him like this, she could fall right back asleep in his loving embrace.

But Cloud seemed to have other ideas. His hands were beginning to travel her body in a way that had a little too much need and pressure behind his touch, abandoning her hair in favor of the soft skin of her hips and the dip in her waist and round curve of her bottom. She felt his erection stir back to life under her thigh, and she blushed, hiding her face against his chest as his hand reached behind her and found her warm center between her thighs.

"Cloud," she whispered, shaking her head, but he lifted her chin with one hand so that she could look up at him. He stared at her, wearing a sloppy, sleepy grin, and she couldn't help return it with a smile of her own.

"What?" he asked, feigning ignorance to the mild chastisement of her tone. "You can't expect me to not want to make up for lost time, Teef."

She laughed, but the sound broke away into a moan when she felt his finger run lines over her slit, dancing over her clit a few times before he slid it inside of her. Unable to stop herself from chasing those same delightful sensations again, she pressed back against him, slowly weaving her hips in circles.

"Oh, oh, Cloud," she whimpered, and he leaned forward and kissed her, capturing her lips for a moment before he let his kisses spill over onto her jaw.

"You like this?" he asked her, and the smooth, low tenor of his voice unwound her. Something about his bedroom voice and his carefully chosen words, however brief, always seemed to get her hotter and wetter every time he spoke. She whimpered in response, her hips now riding his finger, the gentle penetration leaving her feeling so sensitive and worked up but wanting so badly to be filled to the brim, to overflow. Wanting more, she dug her fingernails deep into his shoulders, cooing his name.

"Cloud…"

"What's wrong?" he breathed, looking up at her, his eyes low-lidded and his lips still carrying that lazy smile. The sun passed behind a few clouds, and for long moments, he was shadowed, his eyes glowing up at her again. "Everything okay, baby?"

Tifa felt something inside of her melt at the sound of his voice and his choice of words, and she clenched down on him tight, feeling herself drip just a little more. He was becoming more and more like his younger self, too charming and daring and bold, sweet but dangerously sexy, enough to get a girl into a world of trouble, and Tifa wanted all of it forever.

"Mhm," she hummed. "I love it when you talk to me like this, Cloud."

"Yeah?" his voice was still low and throaty and deep, but her backtalk had piqued his interest, and he was looking at her even more closely. "Does it turn you on?"

Tifa widened her knees over him in response, feeling his hardness ride up against her inner thigh. "I like it when you're so sweet," she found herself gushing, unable to stop herself despite the way that her face brightened and her heart raced, her entire body warm and flushed. "It makes me so wet, the sound of your voice, the sweet things that you say to me."

He leaned forward to kiss her again, and as he did so, he dipped another finger inside of her, gently fucking her with both, slowly pressing in and out of her, Tifa soaking him. She mewled into his mouth, and he pulled away, his own cheeks now stained pink as their eyes met again.

"I've got a lifetime of sweet talk for you, Teef," he whispered, one hand in its possessive hold around the back of her neck again. "You want to ride me?"

"Be careful," she warned him playfully. "I'm a little sore."

Cloud's eyebrows shot up, but he retained his grin. "Really?"

When she nodded shyly in response, he sat up, carrying her with him until he was able to fold her in his lap with her legs around him, crowding her close to his body until their chests were flush against one another's. She curled into his warmth, already missing the feeling of his fingers pressed inside of her, longing for more of the soothing relief that only he could offer her.

"Don't worry," he whispered, dotting her neck with kisses again and pushing her heavy dark hair out of the way. "I'll be gentle, beautiful."

She melted again, arms folded around him as his hands began to travel her body, stroking under her chin and trailing her arms and ribs before resting at her waist. He slid them forward to cup her bottom, lifting her slightly so that her chest was level with his face and he could drop his mouth to one of her nipples.

She whined as soon as his mouth closed around her stiffened flesh, new sparks of heat traveling along the lines of her tight abdomen until they centered themselves right over her clit with a pulse. His length was a steel rod between her legs, resting on her thigh and promising so much of the fullness from the night before that was leaving her with such a delicious ache. She rocked her hips toward him as he licked at her flesh, rolling her nipple under his tongue before squeezing her bottom firmly, the tips of his fingers dangerously close to her needy heat again.

"Cloud," she whined above him.

He smirked around her nipple, then released it so that he could get a better look at her.

"Shh," he shushed her, and Tifa realized that he was rather fond of doing that. "Let me finish what I'm doing, Tifa. You know I'm gonna take care of you, right? Don't rush it. Just relax. Let me take care of you."

She was melting again, trembling above him, her legs growing weaker and weaker as he held her up against him and moved his mouth to her opposite breast, adorning it with the same level of careful, listless affection. The heat in her core was spreading, and she knew that she was making a mess all over him, leaking and dripping as her body exploded with wanton desire. She concentrated on the sensation of his tongue circling her nipple and his teeth scraping across it as he sucked her, but it was not enough for her to reach the peak she was climbing for, the height of her need between her thighs.

He went on for a moment longer until her breathing was labored and she was huffing out his name again. He lowered her carefully until she was seated in his lap again, and then he pulled her in close to him, kissing her sweetly one more time, his tongue wrapping around hers before he retreated.

"You're so pretty," he praised her, kissing her cheeks and jaw now. "So beautiful. The first time I saw you, Teef, I knew you were the only girl I'd ever want."

"Cloud…"

"I," he paused to kiss her eyelids, "Mean," and then her nose, "It. I was already picky when it came to girls. And then I met you, and my expectations could never be met again."

Normally his flirtations would have made her laugh, but in the heat of the moment, with the state she was already in, his words were throwing gasoline on open flames. She circled her hips over his, seeking any sort of friction she could find, her lower belly growing into a tight coil as her body continued to search for some sort of relief from the build that his low voice and soft touches were inspiring in her. He knew exactly what she wanted, because he shifted slightly until his shaft was between her folds, pulling her by her thighs and working her hips over his in a slow grind, her clit soon rubbing gently against his skin.

"Oh, oh," she keened, surging her fingers into his hair, and Cloud looked up from where he had been staring between their bodies to catch her eyes again.

"That better?"

"Yes, yes," she whined greedily, trying to speed up their grind. But he held her firm, dictating their movements, guiding every twist of her hips over his with his precise control.

She started to whine again, realizing that she was not above begging, not when it came to him and not when it came to chasing the edge of the cliff that she wanted to leap and fly away from. He bit his bottom lip at her sound, raising his hips higher to deepen the tension between the tender spot where they were connected, and as Tifa felt the pleasure run wires from her clit deep inside of her tummy, she pulled on his hair.

"You're getting close," Cloud stated, not a question, and she only nodded, pressing down harder on him.

She heard his breath escape in what sounded like a chuckle, and then, he was reaching between them for his cock, pulling it away from the angle that had been finally driving her to the edge. Instead, he guided the tip of it to her entrance, and she didn't know whether to cry at the fact that he was about to fill her the way that she wanted to so badly or at the realization that he was leaving her hot, quivering little nub so wound up and unfulfilled.

Still, she gasped when he buried himself inside of her, instantly feeling him plunge against a spot buried deep inside of her, the same spot that he had discovered last night that had left her crying out late into the night. He brought her in close, then slowly began to work his hips up against hers, moving in and out of her in a way that drove her wild with lust and desperation, no matter how sore she still was from the night before.

Still, the soreness was still there, and all it did was make his deep thrusts feel like they were only deepening the ache rather than relieve it. The realization that he was building her toward a high she may never be able to fully stagger beyond, she started to whine again, crying his name out quietly.

"Oh, oh, Cloud… Cloud please. It's so, ah… oh, Cloud, Cloud, I need you…"

Still holding her hip with one hand, Cloud lined her clavicles with kisses, slowly dragging his free hand between their bodies.

"I know, Tifa," he breathed hotly against the hollowed space between her collarbone and the base of her throat. "Just relax. Remember what I told you."

She cried out when he thrust up harder into her, dropping her head to his shoulder as she continued to rake her fingers through his hair. But then he was dropping the pads of his fingers to her clit, rubbing her up and down and over and in circles, instantly reigniting the painful spark he had left to idle.

It hit her nerves with a flare, and he began to move inside of her a little faster, his hand on her hip guiding her into compliance, her body winding up and coiling like the mechanisms of a music box. The dual sensations of euphoria, so different and yet somehow still so much alike, crescendoed together into a pool in the center of her belly. It was taut and tight ready to burst, and when Cloud leaned forward and whispered in her ear, she fell apart.

"You're beautiful," he told her again, "But you're a fucking goddess when you're like this."

The tenor of his voice and the heat of his breath was enough to break her completely, and Tifa cried out as her orgasm hit, two separate collisions that erupted into multiple waves. She felt suddenly submerged in the kaleidoscope that collapsed her nerves, a rainbow of colors washing over her with the sensation of liquified velvet. Her cry quickly turned to sobs when she realized the ride was much longer and much deeper than she had anticipated, and all she could do was hold on to him and let the tears flow and the elation bubble, feeling like stars had burst apart low in the pit of her abdomen.

An entire eternity had passed when Tifa finally regained control of her body and realized that it was over, that it had finally washed through her completely, leaving her disoriented but delirious. At some point, Cloud had lost control as well and had spilled inside of her, his spend leaking out of her as he groaned into her shoulder, his hands now slowly rubbing her back.

When it seemed their breathing had regulated, Cloud laid back, pulling Tifa with him. They were stuck to one another by a thin layer of sweat again, just as they had been the night before. Tifa's hair had flown in every direction, and she already knew that it was knotted and wild and would take a fair amount of detangling to correct. But Cloud just held onto her, keeping her on top of him but holding her close in his arms.

"You okay?" he asked her after long moments had passed, and Tifa shivered, nodding slowly as their eyes met. His were hazy and dreamy, flooded by the remnants of bliss that coated his brain, much as it had hers. His lips were parted, wet and pink from all of their kissing and ravishment.

She didn't know what it was about those two words, but whenever he said them to her, she always shattered to pieces.

"Yeah," she responded softly.

He nodded, smiling smugly before closing his eyes and letting his head drop to the pillow. He quickly fell into a light snooze, and Tifa let him sleep for a while, resting her head on his chest and holding his biceps, her thoughts drifting off to how she couldn't believe that her luck was finally changing. She realized, closing her eyes to the sunlight for a few moments, that despite all the weeping she had done since he first pressed himself inside of her the night before on the piano, that she hadn't cried a single star-tear. And she didn't miss how every pain she had felt in that same amount of time had only been born from their passions.

She laid there for a moment with hopes and possibilities reawakening behind her eyes when she glanced over at her bedside clock, realizing belatedly that it was after ten. She finally blinked away her thoughts, stumbling through the joyful afterglow she had settled into as she turned to Cloud.

"Cloud?" she called quietly to him. "Cloud, wake up."

He stirred right away, opening his eyes to her with a few slow blinks. "Hm?"

"Cloud, it's getting late," she said regretfully. "After ten. Don't you have to get Denzel soon?"

Hearing that, Cloud finally waded himself back to full awareness and began to sit up, carefully helping Tifa slide off of him with his hands on her forearms.

"I've got a little bit of time," he replied, shaking out his head before looking at her, his face more relaxed than she could ever remember seeing it. "His club should be back from Sector 4 around noon. They're dropping him right off at home."

She nodded, and catching him admiring her at her side, she blushed and looked down at her sheets, unable to hide the way her face broke out into a radiant smile.

"Okay," she conceded, finally looking back up at him. "I can make us some coffee before you leave. But first I really need to do something about my hair before it gets any worse."

Cloud's eyebrow went up in interest at this, but Tifa knew that she was not exaggerating. She kept her hair long, so long that it reached her hips, and it was so thick and heavy that not even its straightness could keep it from becoming a mess to deal with.

She started to get up, but realizing her complete nakedness under the sheets, she blushed at the sudden rise of embarrassment.

"Can you get my brush?" she asked him shyly. "It's right there on the dresser, the bright blue one."

She waited, watching as he smirked at her and then nodded, getting up without even thinking about it, still fully naked. He crossed her room and picked up the brush.

"Okay."

He returned and sat back down, then held it out to her, and when she went for it, he quickly snatched it out of her reach.

She narrowed her eyes at him, leaning forward to grab it, but he held it away, evading her with quick movements of his swift and well-cut arms every time she pursued him.

"Cloud!" she finally huffed, trying not to laugh but unable to hold it back, and she spilled into his lap, quickly righting herself.

"Let me do it, Teef."

"What?"

"Let me brush your hair." Already he was reaching for a thick lock of her tresses, pulling them away from where they brushed against her upper arm. He brought the brush up to the dead center of her locks, ready to run the brush right through it.

She shrugged his hand away, taking the brush from him quickly even though he pouted. "Hold on, Cloud," Tifa admonished. "Watch".

She showed him how to carefully work the brush through her hair from tips to roots, guiding his fingers through some of the tangles he'd created. Eventually, he learned how to brush out the knots without pulling out too much hair or tearing at her scalp, and soon, he was unknotting her hair in his hands.

"I like when you brush my hair," she whispered to him over her shoulder, Cloud unable to see the beaming smile on her face.

He laughed, his voice joyous as his hands passed over her hair and worked open her tangles. Tifa sighed, as he worked his way through her strands, leaning into him and unable to keep herself from falling face-first into the plunge, ready to change everything and risk it all once again.

Just for him.

—

[ μ ] - εγλ - 1997 | 7th January

Blockaded

Cloud sat for hours against the warmth of his mother's soft arms, the heat of their hearth doing nothing but reminding him over and over again of how he'd let Tifa slip away just long enough for her to fall nearly to her death.

Despite Claudia's reassurance, despite her well-cooked meals and her soft words, nothing could assuage the guilt that Cloud felt after Tifa had fallen and he'd failed to keep them both from pitching forward into the black. It ruined him inside how badly it made him feel, and he knew then that he was useless, that he was failing her, unless he got his act together and made himself into someone that she could truly rely upon.

So as the days and nights passed after they'd fallen from the cliff and Tifa had spent those nights in a coma, Cloud could not erase the hate and suspicion that had descended upon him.

Why would you bring Tifa to a place like this?

What were you thinking?

What have you done?

Those last two questions never stopped burning through his mind, even as the days passed, even as he had watched Tifa's father and Jody Hartley's father finally pick Tifa up from the crags and carry her away. It had taken hours, Cloud laying there with Tifa in his arms trying to figure out how to even proceed when his own body felt so broken and useless.

Her father- somewhat sober- had been the one to appear, followed by a concerned and stern-faced Jonathan Hartley, Jody's father. At the discovery of Tifa's broken form among the crags, Brian Lockhart had disintegrated again into new anguish, only this time unleashing his pain in the form of a few angry shouts in Cloud's direction before he lifted his lifeless daughter away from the rocks and carried her back downhill.

"What were you thinking?" Hartley repeated the question as they quietly hiked back to the village together. "Tifa is such a nice girl. Why are you trying to ruin her? Leave her alone."

Remembering the vicious lies this man's son had told about Tifa, Cloud tried to avoid spitting in Hartley's face the entire way back, but somehow, he managed.

Days had passed since then. Tifa had ended up in a coma, unresponsive when she was lifted from the ruins. Cloud had been fine with the exception of his scrapes and cuts, and had walked home, following the same trails that had led them to such disaster.

A week later, Cloud stewed in his own thoughts, trying to reconcile Tifa's rash behavior in the aftermath of her mother's death. But his thoughts and his shame at failing her and letting her fall could not outpace his love for her, even though all of it left him weeping on his bed, his door locked so his mother wouldn't ever find out.

The Sunday after he and Tifa had fallen, Cloud woke from a drowsy nap, earphones still haphazard over his ears, to Claudia knocking at his door. He sat up, grunting an assent until she pushed open the door and entered.

"Hi, sweetheart."

It wasn't long before she was sitting beside him on his bed, bringing with her the scent of fresh cookie dough, and Cloud's mouth was already watering.

"Mom."

His mother was quiet for a long moment, though her hand had dropped to find his. "Tifa is awake, Cloud," she said softly. " I was going to go over there to bring her and her father some food. Would you like to come?"

His heart collapsing, Cloud was immediately at his feet. "Y, yeah, sure."

And so he followed his mother across the street, carrying the tray of slow-roasted beef and potatoes that she had prepared while Claudia carried the bread and her homemade lemonade in a basket.

They were on Tifa's front steps, Cloud's heart living in his throat. All he had thought about in the last stretch of days was Tifa, his guilt and his worry silencing and crushing him to the floorboards as he paced through his room and laid back on his bed, staring at the ceiling, struggling to swallow back even a little bit of his mother's best home-cooked meals.

Cloud was two paces behind Claudia, his hands buried in his pockets when the door slid open. Brian Lockhart appeared, peering between the slats of wood, his eyes narrowing as soon as he took stock of Cloud's mother.

Tifa's father was a big man. He was tall and imposing, easily a foot and a half taller than Claudia and more than a foot taller than Cloud. And he was broad-shouldered and wide, his entire body eclipsing the shadows of the sunlight behind the mountains when he appeared in the doorway.

He said nothing as he stood in the threshold, his eyes turning to daggers when they focused on Cloud's mother's face.

"Good Afternoon, Brian," Claudia greeted in a pleasant but measured tone. She held up the basket she was carrying. "I heard Tifa is awake. We've got some food for you guys."

She said nothing else, but already, Brian was stepping out of the threshold, revealing himself in his heavy dark linens and wools, his face darkened by a deep shadow that hadn't been shaved in days.

Cloud was feet away from him, almost near the sidewalk, but even from where he stood he could smell the stench of bourbon that clung deeply to Lockhart's pores like a deeply rooted infection. He wrinkled his nose, inching further back until he was able to lean against the fence, watching his mother square her shoulders.

"Strife," Brian snarled in his mother's direction, though his eyes were locked onto Cloud. He stared at him for a long, angry moment, before he turned to Claudia. "You have a lot of nerve showing up here, after all the trouble your son has caused me."

Cloud straightened, his mother inhaling deeply. He could hear her breath puff out before she responded.

"Brian, my son tried to help Tifa. She was very upset after Lorelai -"

"I don't want to hear any of it, Claudia!" Brian shouted, advancing toward her, his hand reaching out to slap the basket of rolls and juice from her grip, sending them in a spill across the stone pathway of his home. "He nearly killed my daughter. I almost lost them both on the same day!"

Cloud was instantly at her side, but Claudia was shoving him behind her, her dark blue eyes ablaze as she stared back at Brian.

"We all miss Lorelai," Claudia suddenly pleaded, and Cloud realized with horror that she was weeping. "She was my best friend, Brian. Since we were girls. But Cloud did not hurt Tifa. He never would. He loves Tifa, and so do I."

Brian stared at her silently, and for a moment, Cloud thought that his dark brown eyes might spill over into tears. But they did not; instead, they narrowed, Brian soon taking another threatening step toward his mother until he was towering directly above her.

"I'm only going to say this once, Claudia," he growled, "Keep your bastard away from my daughter. If I see him near her again, I will kill him. And you can forget about your application for the shop."

"Brian - "

But Brian was grabbing his mother by her arms, throttling her in her grip before shoving her away from his front step. Cloud felt the fury of a thousand suns burn through his mind, instantly catching his mother before she could fall, ready to step forward and attack Brian Lockhart with all of the rage in his fists.

"Don't even think about it," Tifa's father threatened when Cloud stepped up to him. "I run this village. I will make you and your mother's lives hell if you take another step or come close to my daughter again."

Cloud opened his mouth to respond, his brain ablaze, but his mother was bending down, picking up her basket before she tugged on the sleeve of his leather jacket.

"Come on, sweetheart," she urged, turning away and nearly stumbling over the steps as she made her way back to the street. She quickly corrected herself, though, plucking at her skirts, Cloud finding it impossible to tear his eyes away from the rage of Brian's.

Tifa's father turned and disappeared, though, slamming his front door behind him.

"Mom," Cloud complained, holding her arm as she shook her head over and over again, holding her empty basket and holding back her tears.

"It's okay, honey," she told him. "Let's just go home."

But he could only sigh in response, following her back to their meager outfitting next door, not aware that Tifa had been watching it all from her bedroom window.

—

[ μ ] - εγλ - 1997 | 19th January

Through a Glass Darkly

Weeks began to pass, the New Year bringing with it the dark chills that ran deep among Mount Nibel's loneliest peaks. The sky was almost perpetually dim that winter, the sun always hidden behind the sad puffiness of heavy storm clouds.

It had been three weeks since Tifa had awoken from her coma following her and Cloud's fall from the mountain, and she had only seen him in passing once in that time. Her father had kept her cooped up in their home, extending her bed rest an additional week and even keeping her out of school for weeks. She had asked once if Cloud could come over, and her father's resulting explosion had been so ugly and volatile that she did not dare suggest the idea again.

She did sneak a few phone calls with him late at night, brief exchanges she was too terrified to let carry on for longer than a few short minutes for fear of her father picking up the phone on the other end, but finding herself happily soothed by the smooth, boyishly baritone note of Cloud's voice.

It wasn't until she returned to school in late January that she was finally able to see Cloud again, meeting him by the water tower on a wintery day where the snow was falling in slow but persistent flakes. The hills and valleys beyond Nibelheim's central park were blanketed in white, and Tifa stood there admiring the unblemished perfection of it all as she felt the cold sting her fingertips through her mittens. She wondered what it might look like if someone just ran their hands violently through all of it, disrupting it and tossing the snow askew, leaving the whiteness and the purity stained with blood and golden sparkles.

"Tifa?"

She turned, finding him standing only a few feet behind her, the snow already caking to his wispy golden spikes. She had been so mired in her thoughts that she hadn't even heard him pull up his mother's dusty old blue sedan outside of the park, and his footsteps had treaded so lightly in the snow that he caught her completely off guard.

"Cloud."

He ran up to her as soon as she acknowledged his presence, his arms around her faster than she could breathe. She returned his embrace eagerly, pulling him in as close to her as she could get him, feeling the cool wetness of the snow against her cheek when she pressed it to his leather jacket.

"Are you okay?" were the first words out of his mouth. "I'm so sorry, Tifa. I thought I had you, but then the dragon and the bridge -"

"Cloud," Tifa cried, feeling her heart begin to balloon, her chest suddenly painfully tight. She knew that her father had wrongfully blamed him for all of this - they had argued about it for hours before she had given up - but it tore her up inside to know that Cloud blamed himself. As the corners of her eyes began to sting, she held him tighter and shook her head.

"It wasn't your fault, Cloud," she finally wept into his chest, the feeling of his arms around her the only thing keeping her tethered to reality. "I was stupid for what I did. I could have gotten us both killed. I wasn't thinking, I was - "

"Shhh," he crushed her to him as he urged her to silence, and all Tifa could smell was the silly boyish spray-on aftershave that she knew he bought from the local drugstore but that she also knew made him smell so cute and made the center of her thighs feel warm and achy. She clung to him, forgetting the frost in the wind, obeying him as he shushed her.

"That's not true," he reassured her. "You're not stupid. You're upset, and you have every right to be. I never got to say this to you, Tifa, but I'm sorry about your mom."

The memory of her mother's bedroom passed over her again, and Tifa shuddered, clinging to him, ignoring the way the snow was catching in her hair and blistering her knuckles with its wet coolness. "Thank you, Cloud. I missed you."

"I missed you too, Tifa. But why are you standing out here in the snow? Why didn't you just meet me at Willie's or someplace warm?"

"My father thinks I'm with Rebecca," Tifa responded. "I can't stay out long, or he'll find out. I just had to see you. I've missed you so much, Cloud."

He squeezed her, then pulled away, taking her hand.

"Come on, let's go sit in my car," he beckoned.

And so Tifa followed him, crowding with him into the backseat of his mother's sedan after he pushed spools of fabrics and books of sewing patterns out of the way. She was in his lap as soon as the door shut, whispering her miseries and her hopes to him, Cloud's touch dragging away her sadness as they kissed and Tifa wept, his hands on her body freeing her soul from a lifetime of aches she knew, at that very moment on this very night, that she might never be able to alleviate.

Even if she loved a boy who loved her more than anything in the world.