A/N (04.10.22): Made several changes because I was unsatisfied with the previous version ✌️
Cloud comes home just a couple of minutes past 1am.
Too wasted to think clearly. Too wasted to move without his limbs shaking. Too wasted to walk without repeatedly almost tumbling down onto the ground.
It takes him several tries before he finally unlocks the entrance door to the apartment he shares with Tifa.
Dragging himself to the bedroom is a no-go.
He staggers into the living room instead, all set to throw himself onto the couch.
A few steps close to where he intends to lay down, he catches sight of an outline sitting with knees up and arms enclosed around the legs.
Wrestling with blurry visions, he tries to figure out whether his eyes are playing tricks with him…
Oh, it's Tifa.
"Hey babeeeee. I didn't know you're here," he slurs, a little too excited to find her still awake.
He wants to tell her about all the "adventures" that he just had!
Tifa's just staring at him. Passively. Quietly.
He rambles on, "Zack and I just went to Hardy Daytona's showroom to check out their new motorbikes. Coooooool new bikes. Self-driving and shit. Oh but we didn't like… go in through the doors. I mean, the actual doors. You know, where the salespeople would be standing to say their pretentious hiiiiiiii, and stalk your ass wherever you go. It was craaaaaazy."
A hiccup interrupts him and he giggles. Everything seems so fucking funny now somehow.
"Zack's like 'hey, wanna break into one of their showrooms?' and the next thing you know, we're in Sector 0, kicking the doors and stealing their motorbikes and speeding off the highway to Sector 3."
He's just giggling and giggling.
Actually, how do you stop giggling?
"Like this guy is so out of control. I mean… who comes up with this whole crazy-"
"Why are you still hanging around Zack?"
His mouth freezes. Nothing's funny anymore.
And for the first time since he has been in the room, he notices Tifa's pressed lips and icy stare.
"What do you mean why? I still work with him, babe."
"And? There's literally no need for you to hang around him outside working hours. Why? Did he put a gun to your head?"
The fog in his head's slowly dissolving away and he feels himself sobering up.
He realizes that she's looking for a fight tonight.
He breathes in and out deeply, then rolls his eyes.
He's not going to give her what she wants.
He needs to go to bed after all. It's the only way to avoid whatever it is that she's trying to achieve.
"I'm going to bed," so he tells her, before leaning in to give her a kiss.
She slants backward and angles her head slightly away.
He may be drunk but he definitely can see that she doesn't want his kiss.
The memory of Zack speaking to him on that hill in Sector 3 resurfaces like a long gone dead body floating in waters, looking to haunt whatever it is that killed it.
He feels again the hot bubbling rage he felt then.
It's climbing higher and higher, burning his insides with acid that makes him want to gag.
He wants to scream his chest out.
He doesn't care that it's past midnight and people are asleep left and right.
"What the FUCK is wrong with you, Tifa? You've been acting like a bitch this past whole month! What have I done wrong to you?"
The irony of him asking what he had done wrong. He's fully aware of what he did.
But right now? Who gives a flying fuck.
Anger precedes guilt.
Why is he always second to others? Why is he not wanted by the people he loves and cares about? Why does Zack feel like he would rather be with the bitchy bitch than him? What does she have that he doesn't? Why's Tifa being distant? Why doesn't she want him to kiss her? What's next? No hugs, no holding hands, no touches?
What did he do to deserve any of this?
Tifa stands up, ready to challenge him. He towers above her by just a few inches but the height difference doesn't intimidate her.
Muscles around her jaw are taut as she shrieks, "What have you done wrong to me? Oh a lot of things, Cloud! You would have known if you actually cared!"
"Is this about us not fucking? Is this what this is all about?"
Because that's all that matters to her.
And Zack.
Fucking, fucking and fucking. If he's not fucking them, then he's just a poor little dirt not worth their care.
"It's not just that. It's a lot of things!"
Oh, she's saying that he's wrong?
"Then tell me what those things are, Tifa! Say them to my face! I'll take them over having to deal with you acting like a bitch all day every goddamn day!"
For some weird reason, she sinks back onto the couch.
All that hostile energy in her is drained away.
"Why are we even talking about this?" she grumbles.
There she goes. Giving up when the heat's too hot for her to handle.
"You don't even want to talk about it," he scoffs.
She's glaring again.
"Why are you still hanging out with Zack, even after I told you many fucking times that I don't like you around him, and him around you?"
He thanks whatever force up there that's fucking with their lives for his mouth and its power to piss her off easily and keeping this mess going.
"I told you. We're still working together. I work for him. I can't just cut him off like that."
"And I'm saying you have to cut him off! Not professionally – no. But he doesn't have to be anywhere in your personal life!"
He doesn't understand where this is coming from – this need of hers to see him renounce his friendship with Zack. She has never been big about controlling who he should or should not be friends with.
Is someone working behind the scenes to make her feel like doing this?
"Why are you hell-bent on this? Does this have to do with Aerith? Did she put you up to this?"
She seems taken aback by his accusations. Whether they're correct or not remains to be known.
"Have you not seen the way he treats Aerith?"
He knows for a much longer time than she does about how Zack treats his girlfriend. It sucks and he doesn't wish for anyone to go through it.
But honestly? He doesn't fucking care.
Why should he care?
"But that's none of our business, Tifa."
Those words slip from his tongue like it's the easiest thing for him to say.
"What the fuck, Cloud…"
He doesn't see the point of arguing any further about this.
"Okay, you know what, I'm out. I don't want to talk about this anymore. I'm going to bed – for real, this time," he says, gesturing with his hands that he's ending the conversation.
He starts walking away, ignoring her as she bitterly mocks, "Great, just walk away, like you always do when we're-"
He slams their bedroom door shut.
The fight they had a couple of days ago? Maybe it never happened.
Tifa hasn't stopped apologizing since they've gone to bed.
She's kissing him everywhere as she does it – his weak spots and spots that he never thought would feel good when they're kissed.
Almost like she doesn't want her lips to miss even a single bit of him.
He misses this too much to think about the hows, whats and whys.
He's incredibly turned on by her that they've started fucking again.
…Or maybe he's just horny because it has been too long since he last fucked someone.
He remembers again how good she is with her mouth.
And the power of her pussy.
How could he forget how fucking good it is to be in someone?
The snugness and pliability of hot meat sucking him dry.
"Fuck me, Cloud… Fuck me…" he hears her pleading, ass bouncing up and down above him.
His eyes flutter open, seeking to watch just how good he's making her feel.
But he doesn't see her.
His brain refuses to let him.
It doesn't want soft smooth skin and huge tits.
It wants flat breasts above 6-pack abs and a scar on the jaw.
Guilt makes him grimace… but he would be lying if he says that he has never been more turned on than now in his whole entire life.
"Fuck, Tifa!"
He shoves her down and smashes his hips against hers faster.
She's moaning like she's announcing to everyone that they're fucking.
But he can't hear her.
There's nothing but ringing in his ears as he envisions a pair of grey blue eyes staring back at him.
"I'll do better."
What even is he saying to Tifa when he was just thinking about someone else?
What a fucking joke.