Cloud woke up alert, hand reaching out for a weapon, chest heaving with panicked breaths and eyes lit bright in the dark of the room. It was midnight, perhaps, or close to it, and Cloud couldn't remember what he'd been dreaming about to prompt such a violent awakening. Nothing was in the room that shouldn't be - even the window was closed and locked against any intruder that dared to try entering. Concentrating, he noted the quiet sound of Tifa breathing in the next room and the muffled snores from the two children that meant that he was the only one awake in the house. He lay there for a moment, adjusting; it wasn't an unfamiliar situation.

His heart still pounding painfully from what was apparently absolutely nothing, there was no point in him even trying to go back to sleep right then. So, throwing back the blanket and carefully getting out of the bed, Cloud padded softly along the hallway and down the stairs, avoiding the worst of the creaks and groans out of consideration for the others. It was too early to get up for the day, but the familiar actions of going for a glass of water should at least centre him in the real world and relieve his dry throat.

His efforts to stay quiet were made in vain, however. Tifa might not have been at the peak of her physical fitness and alertness in the way she had been several years ago, but she certainly wasn't a slouch when it came to responding to potential burglars, and her habit of sleeping lightly meant he was caught as soon as he nudged the kitchen door open.

"Cloud?" she yawned, covering her mouth with a pyjama-clad arm as she joined him in the kitchen by the sink. "You okay?"

"I'm fine, Tifa," he whispered back, "just getting a glass of water. Nothing to worry about." He reached into one of the cupboards for a glass to prove his intentions.

"Alright," she answered, unconvinced, "so you didn't wake up from a nightmare again?"

"What?" Cloud said, a little louder than he'd intended, and paused for a moment to check that Denzel and Marlene were still breathing steadily in slumber before whispering, "I got up for some water, Tifa, no nightmares involved."

"It's just strange, that's all. This is the third night you've woken up in the middle of the night, and the other two nights you weren't exactly sleeping peacefully."

"I don't know what you mean," he deflected, studiously watching his glass fill instead of turning to look her in the eye.

"Cloud, we've talked about this." Disappointment coloured her words, and Cloud sighed before putting his glass down next to the sink.

"Tifa, I didn't have a nightmare and as far as I know, I've been sleeping like normal. I wake up, I'm thirsty, I come down for water, I'm not hiding anything." At her disbelieving stare, he shrugged and lightly smiled, "promise".

"You've been mumbling in your sleep, Cloud. I can't catch the words, but I can hear you saying something. I've heard you tossing and turning in bed, and you never look rested when you wake up. Are you sure you're okay, that there isn't something wrong?" she asked, reaching out to him and putting her hand on his arm. He placed his own hand over it, and held hers for a moment before letting go.

"I know that you're worried, but I would say something if I thought anything was wrong. I wouldn't put you or the kids at risk," he said, and when she opened her mouth with a frown he hurriedly added, "I just found myself wide awake. That's all."

"Fine," she said with a small smile that set off a pang of guilt, "I understand. I just worry, that's all."

"I know," he replied. "I'll finish this, and go back to bed. You go back too - tomorrow's not that far away, and it doesn't need to see both of us exhausted."

Waving her agreement, and with a softly yawned "goodnight", Tifa retreated back to her room and pushed her door mostly closed. As he drank, he could hear the soft rustling as she got into bed, and closed his eyes while resting the cool empty glass on his forehead.

It would be easy to grow paranoid, with his history. It would be so very easy to imagine a new catastrophe, of a new attack from Sephiroth or Jenova or just some new crappy secret of ShinRa's that was specifically designed to send him insane or control his actions; that was the trouble with living life lurching from one world-ending disaster to another. But people sometimes didn't sleep well. And he had more reason to sleep poorly than most, more nightmares than he could have imagined as a naive fourteen year old looking at a poster of a hero and dreaming of strength and power and acknowledgment.

He yawned, feeling tiredness sweep over him again as he leaned over the sink to rinse out the glass, his eyes growing heavy between each blink. A moment later, he felt his muscles release and the unfortunately all-too-familiar sensation of his body collapsing.

Cloud!

He heard a faint cry as he - somehow - passed through the floor? - Aerith? Tifa? - and the world went white and fragrant with the scent of flowers for an instant - then it went to a shining, shifting green.

Cloud unravelled, in an eternity and an instant and the last lingering traces of him flowed into the Lifestream.