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A Day of Rest

2

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"I'm so tired! You didn't even let up one bit!" Aeris exclaimed, while stretching her arms upwards.

"Of course not! Or you would've drowned me with all that water!" With that said, he plopped down the blanket they bought just now.

Aeris lay down, shifted to her side so she was facing Cloud and closed her eyes. 'If only we could stay like this forever.'

Cloud felt her move, so he opened his eyes and looked over. Aeris was just resting silently. 'We're not too close, or else I would've been blushing again… she looks so peaceful like that…' Cloud extended his hand and almost touched her face, but he stopped right on time and bought it back. 'What am I doing? I better face the other way…' With that thought in mind, he shifted to the other side. 'Really…'

They both lay there in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Aeris decided to stir first and opened her eyes. 'Is he asleep?' Aeris sat up and inched over. She leaned over a bit to get a good view of Cloud's face. 'I can't tell…' So she just continued staring at him and spacing out. 'This reminds me of the time we first met…formally. 'Aeris smiled.

Cloud eventually got a feeling that he was being watched, so he opened his eyes to be met with a pair of green ones. 'This seems familiar…'

"Good morning." Aeris smiled at him.

"I wasn't sleeping…" Cloud replied with a grunt.

"The sun is almost setting! Let's walk along the beach." Aeris got up and stretched.

Cloud noticed some guys near the walkway eyeing her, so he took his shirt, stood up, and placed in on Aeris' shoulders.

"Hm?" Aeris turned to him in question. "I'm not cold…"

"Just…wear it." Cloud looked away. 'Jeez…it seems like I'm her boyfriend or something…' He immediately blushed at the thought. 'Not again!'

Aeris finally understood when she saw some guys nearby. 'He's such a gentleman…heh, I should tease him.' Aeris made a playful face, and then said, "Those guys over there don't look that bad…wonder if I should go and talk to them."

Cloud immediately looked at her, "What? Why?"

"Why, you ask. Well, they're good looking."

"But-" Cloud stopped. 'Well, I can't tell her not too…but…why do I feel like I want to?'

"Hmm…is someone jealous?"

"Of course not!"

"Then what's with the immediate answer?"

"If I paused, you would've said, 'what's was the pause for?'" Cloud said, then muttered, "Women…"

"I could go over right?"

'Is she for real?' Cloud looked away, "Sure." 'Why should I care?'

Aeris laughed lightly, "But I wouldn't anyways."

Now Cloud was confused, "…Huh?"

"I was just joking! Besides…" Aeris smiled genuinely and lowered her voice, "I have you, what more do I want?" With that said, she started to walk along the shores of the beach, tightly holding Cloud's shirt around her.

Cloud stood there for a moment, speechless. 'Was it just me, or did she just say what I thought she said?' Still undecided, he simply followed Aeris' trail.

'And he's really good looking too, even though he doesn't know it.' Aeris thought with a laugh. 'He doesn't even know why random girls go and talk to him! Ah…I should wait for him.'

Cloud was just staring at the ground and walking. He stopped when he realized that Aeris stopped too, and looked up at her.

"Come on, lighten up! We're just going for a little walk." Aeris then proceeded to poke him. As soon as her finger came in contact with his side, Cloud reflexively jumped back.

"You're…ticklish." Aeris stated, rather than asked.

"Um…Yeah." 'Why do I have a bad feeling about this?'

"Really?" Aeris laughed and started to poke him.

"Ah! No! Stop it! It tickles!" Cloud started to run away from Aeris, so she just ran after him.

Cloud stopped abruptly and turned around. Out of fear of his retaliation, Aeris ran the other way. Now Cloud was chasing after her. Eventually, Cloud caught her arm. The sudden contact surprised Aeris so she dropped Cloud's shirt and lost her footing as well, but Cloud caught her just in time which also resulted in hugging her from behind. Cloud's cheek immediately heated up, while Aeris' breath became shallow.

'I can feel my face going red again, but somehow…I just want to stay like this…but…will Aeris feel uncomfortable?'

'I can feel his skin on my back…and I can smell him. He smells good…I just want to stay like this for a while, since it's not like we can always be like this…'

Neither of them moved an inch, so they just stayed like that for a while. The beach was mostly deserted, with no one around. There was comfortable silence, until Aeris said, "We should get going or else it's going to be dark."

Cloud finally let go of her, "Um…yeah." He quickly walked back to get their belongings, all the while still blushing really hard. 'Traitorous blush! Why don't you leave me alone!'

Aeris picked up Cloud's shirt. 'I never expected Cloud to hold me for so long…I was afraid I was going to faint! Besides, the others might see us like this. Yuffie and Cid would never let this go! If that happened, Cloud would be so embarrassed.'

Cloud approached Aeris and said, "Let's go." He didn't even wait for an answer and just started to walk back.

'He must be really embarrassed.' Aeris followed him and said, "I'll carry the bag."

"No, it's okay." Cloud didn't even turn around. 'I…can't face her…she might be angry or something… and I'm scared that I'll blush in front of her…again.'

"Your shirt…"

"Hold on to it for now."

"Okay…" Aeris put it around her shoulders. 'I should say something before we get back…' she thought, a bit worried.

They started to walk back in silence and all the way Aeris was in deep thought. She wanted to talk, not small talk, but about something from the bottom of her heart. She knew what she wanted to say, but words were not forming in her head. They were almost back at the inn when she was finally prepared for her words. She grabbed Cloud's free hand. He didn't even turn around or say a word.

'Why all of a sudden? I don't have courage to face her. I-I still remember what just happened… too clearly!'

Seeing no reaction from Cloud, she let go of his arm, went in front of him and tried to look at his face, which was looking at the ground, "Thank you for spending the whole day with me, it was really fun."

Cloud blinked. "Huh?" He didn't expect her to say that. "…I enjoyed it too."

"We should do this again sometime. You and…me." Aeris cheeks went slightly pink at her last few words.

"Um, sure…" Cloud was looking at her, who was now the one looking at the ground. 'Okay…so far no blushing. Good.'

Cloud was satisfied with that thought, but it immediately became history when Aeris wrapped her arms around his waist. Cloud dropped the bag that he was carrying. 'That was no accident…'

'I'm blushing so much.' Aeris quickly let go and looked at the floor. 'I can't believe I just did that!' To cover her embarrassment, she quickly said, "I'm so tired! I'm going to leave without you!" She started to run back to the inn. In truth, she didn't want Cloud to see her burning face. 'It would be worst if he sees! I never blush in front of him! …almost. But he might make some smart remark.'

Cloud just stood there for a moment before he said, "What? If you're that tired why are you running?"

Aeris paused and turned around. When she saw his face, she laughed, then went back to running. 'Well…he defiantly saw the blush…I guess it doesn't matter…' Aeris thought with a smile.

"Wait!" Cloud took off after her, laughing at the silliness of this.

Well, love is a silly thing sometimes, isn't it?

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A/N: Lol….i dunno about the ending…was it crappy? I didn't know how to end it! Had a writer's block….sadd….why? And poor Cloud hahah…I just made him ticklish because, well, for the sake of the story? Lol...was it OOC? I hope not. But then again, there are always some traits that people have (and are not known…) that are OOC for them.

Also…I wrote this for a while, but didn't post it up caz it just didn't feel right.

So please review and tell me what you think :)