Chapter 7

~ Hot Feet ~

The breeze was hot on his neck, caressing around his shoulders and barely stirring the blond spikes on his head. The sea lapped the sand's edge in the distance, and he felt lulled further into the unfamiliar feeling of relaxation. Sighing, he fell back into the sand and felt himself begin to fall asleep.

This was bliss. This was what a holiday felt like.

When Marlene and Denzel had thrown themselves at him, begging him to take some time off, Tifa had simply stood in the distance and not said a word, smiling gently to herself. He knew what she was like; she wasn't going to plead and beg him herself, but in her demure way she was hoping he would take time off too. And in his own little way, he was glad they'd jumped and jeered and shouted until he had felt he had to say yes. Tifa had beamed at him.

Barrett was also more organised than he thought. He'd booked the holiday well in advanced, a few weeks before the huge hoards of tourists would inevitably erupt onto the coast, ensuring all chances of a peaceful holiday.

"We're off to play in the sea, okay?" Denzel shouted from behind him, ploughing through Marlene's sand castles to rush to the water.

"Denzel! I spent ages building those!" Marlene huffed.

"Oh no you don't! Where's your sunblock?" Tifa called after him.

Denzel came to a slow halt on the golden sand, sighed his head in resignation, and then began to mope back up the beach.

Barrett straightened up his huge body and did Marlene's back. Cloud was startled when a bottle of sunblock was suddenly shoved underneath his nose by a disgruntled young boy with shaggy brown hair and a look of urgency on his face. Cloud nodded and obliged.

As the children ploughed into the water's edge moments later Cloud's head scanned along the beach. His eyes eventually came to where Barrett had laid back down onto his beach towel. His dark skin was glistening in the sunlight, showing off his huge muscles. His swimming briefs were showing off... a little more than Cloud wanted to see, and he turned away again.

Tifa caught sight of the redness spreading across his shoulders. "Cloud, you're burning up."

He turned to face her, sunning his face from the sun. "No, it's okay. I always go red on my shoulders."

"That's because you never wear sunblock!" she laughed.

Before he could protest she'd moved behind him with a bottle of high factor sunblock and had begun to smooth it over his back. The warm touch of her fingers made him sit up straighter, and his jaw locked slightly.

"You're setting a poor example for them, especially Denzel," she said nodding at the two blobs of brown and pink splashing in the blue ripples of the sea.

He didn't protest.

As her fingers moved further up his back and along his spine he forced himself to relax. There was no reason for him to feel this tense when it was just Tifa, she certainly wasn't a threat or danger to him. But when her fingertips found his shoulder blades the movement of her hands slowed. He felt the soft edges of her thumbs moving slower and slower, dragging lightly over every single muscle fibre with a slight pressure as if she was examining him, sending little sparks up and down his neck.

She suddenly pulled her fingers away and cleared her throat. He turned to glance at her and she was smiling in her sweet way, looking as normal as ever, if a little red. It was probably from the sun. Maybe he'd imagined it.

"Your turn," he said in his deep tone.

For a moment she seemed almost hesitant.

"Oh... sure. I can't be setting a bad example too, can I?" she laughed softly.

He did as she had, smoothing his hands up, down and over the curves her back, and tracing along her spine. He finished at her neck and then noticed that she'd picked up a book while he'd been rubbing in the cream. She was engrossed in it.

"What are you reading?" He had let his curiosity get the better of him.

"Pride and Prejudice," she said, waving the book's cover briefly in front of his eyes.

He sighed a little inside.

Trust Tifa to read something so intelligent and political-sounding on her holiday.

She turned back to her book, her eyes moving slowly and methodically to the bottom of the page. She then turned the page to look at the next page, her eyes then moving to the bottom of that page and so on. In between each page turn she would take a small breath through her partially open lips and start the whole process again. It continued for several minutes.

"Tifa?"

She finally looked up from her book.

"You knew about this holiday way before me, didn't you?"

She bit her lip for a moment. "Maybe."

"Why didn't you tell me about it sooner?"

"I wasn't sure if..." She trailed off. It made him frustrated.

"...I'd come?"

"I know you don't like taking time off."

She smiled with that gentle smile of hers and he could only continue to look back at her. The sunshine brightened a little and the heat on both their faces increased to the point where he thought he was burning up again. Her eyes were majestic in the side-light glow of the sun; a thick red honey he couldn't tear himself away from while the deep brown background melted and merged under the beautiful red highlights slow dancing about in her eyes, bathed in the golden sunlight. He was mesmerised.

"Hey!"

Their heads snapped away from each other. Barrett was standing over them with a couple of bottles of water, a funny expression on his face.

"Thank you, Barrett," Tifa thanked as he handed her a bottle.

He was less animated as he gave a bottle to Cloud, holding it out just within a comfortable reach. Cloud cautiously took it and gave a gentle nod as a "thank you". Barrett merely made some kind of grunt and sat back down on his spot in the sand.

Tifa made a sudden gasp beside him. "Come on, let's go in the sea."

Marlene and Denzel had been waving and shouting at them.

She was dragging him up by his wrist before he could make a decision, and running towards the water. He began to run after her.

"Strife," he heard a voice growl behind him.

He turned round to face Barrett who was now lounging in the hot sun again.

"Keep your hands to yourself," he said flatly.

Cloud's eyebrow cocked a little as he began to run back towards the water. He didn't see what Barrett was getting so worked up about. It was only Tifa, after all.

As he approached the water at a fast jog he spotted the remains of a run down building that had been turned into a platform, sitting a dozen or so metres above the sea, a few hundred yards to his right.

Perfect.

To the bewilderment of Marlene and Denzel Cloud took a sharp turn and began to run towards the gray slab of concrete instead of them.

"Tifa, what's Cloud doing?" Marlene asked dumbfounded. Tifa couldn't reply.

Suddenly he was throwing himself off the platform and moulding his body into an eagle shape ready to thunder effortlessly into the water's surface. A crash thundered about his ears until he found himself deep under the water, bubbles of trapped air rushing past his face, down his tummy, over his legs and to the tips of his toes. The cooler, deeper salty water felt good against his skin and he lingered in the wild and exhilarating sensation for a moment. Opening his eyes he began to look through the murk with his mako-enhanced vision. It didn't take him long to spot Marlene's pink swimsuit, Denzel's scuffed up knees and Tifa's... lovely legs.

When he emerged he felt a slight stinging around his forehead, the top of his chest and thighs, but he ignored it. As he looked around for Denzel he saw him admiring the great height he'd just seen Cloud dive from. Marlene was giggling and trying to get his attention. Tifa was turned away from him and waving to Barrett on the beach, beckoning him to come in for a swim. The smooth curves of her chest and waist, covered only by the thin fabric of her bikini, was eclipsing the stinging white brightness of sunlight reflecting off the glass windows of the shops and apartments back on shore, drawing his attention to the perfect, voluptuous outline of her figure.

"Um... Cloud?"

He looked down to see Marlene prodding him in the side. She hastily began to move the back of her left hand underneath her nose in a sweeping motion.

A little confused, Cloud mimicked her and then found that something wet and thicker and stickier than water was smearing onto the back of his hand. It was blood.

He began to laugh at himself. He'd heard about the stories of young men getting nosebleeds in the presence of a very attractive woman, but this was ridiculous. He had always assumed it never really happened, and it was only an urban myth.

Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Tifa walking towards him through the water, obviously having given up on coaxing Barrett into the water.

She gasped. "Oh, Cloud, what have you done?"

He stood there like a lemon.

"It must have been the angle you took coming into the water," she prodded him lightly.

Oh... well I guess it could have been that too.

"Pinch your nose and hold your head up."

He looked at her dubiously. She sighed.

"Pinch your nose," she said taking his hand and positioning it over the bridge of his nose, "And hold your head up," she continued, pushing his head back by pressing lightly on his jaw with her index finger.

He felt like the preschooler with the runny nosebleeds again.

Time went buy as the seagulls cooed overhead, the waves of the sea grew, crashed and then massaged themselves over and up the populated sands of the beach before being sucked back in again. The sun was gleaming into the side of his eyes, dazing him a little. He then felt a gentle pull on the arm holding his nose and he looked back down to see little people playing in the water further ahead, and then to see Tifa looking curiously at him.

The nosebleed had stopped.

He looked at her like a puppy, a big kid, a something that was adorable and she almost wanted to mother him for a moment. She had been unaware of the low grumble of an engine spurring through the water just meters away, getting closer, and closer, and closer... The sea suddenly rushed past her skin, soaked her hair and stung her eyes. She shut them tight. The sea hung heavy around her, enveloping her, pulling on her this way and that with the undercurrent tide. She was about to kick back to the surface when a powerful grip tore her from the watery underworld and threw her back into the warm sun and hot breeze of the Costa del Sol. With a small gasp she realised that she was trapped between two muscular arms and a broad, solid, masculine chest. She felt faint as her head rushed from suddeness of the past few seconds. Gradually she became more aware of the rest of her body as she began to recognise that scent, that presence that was Cloud, clinging her to him like a clam. She then became unbearably aware of the thin, wet fabric that was hardly separating them and how his strong thigh was pressing against her own. She could feel the ridges of his six pack tight against her tummy.

The motherly feeling had certainly gone.

His grip released her gently, and his hands fell by his sides, except for one arm which still held itself protectively a few centimetres from her waist.

"Idiot can't drive that thing," he muttered angrily under his breath.

She looked up to find him staring after a jet ski now far in the distance, going irresponsibly fast. It took him a while to boil over his anger and turn his attention back to her.

"Are you okay?"

She nodded shyly and then swam forward back into the water to find Marlene, leaving him where he was. Being up against him like that had rendered her unable to breath, let alone speak.

"Denzel! Don't!" Marlene was yelling.

Both the adults turned their attention to where she was shouting and spotted Denzel at the edge of the concrete platform Cloud had dived off not long before.

"If Cloud can do it, I can do it too!" Denzel yelled back defiantly and ran to the end of the platform which was embedded in the beach's sand to begin his run up.

"No, Denzel!" Tifa shouted. She turned her attention to Cloud who was looking on with a contorted expression, as if he was hard at work, calculating what to do. "Tell him not to, Cloud. He'll listen to you."

But it was too late. Denzel dug his heel hard in the sand and began to run, run like his life depended on it, across the hot concrete. He was quickly approaching the edge. Cloud suddenly reacted and dived into the water to trudgen towards the platform.

Denzel launched himself high into the air above the water and let out a cry of joy and exhilaration. He was so caught up in his mid-triumph that he forgot to align his body properly for entry into the water - but then he'd never known how, he was just going to copy what Cloud had done - and he hit the water in a loud crash, in a twisted ball of limbs.

Cloud reached him first and pulled him from underwater to the surface. He was unconscious. He carried him, swimming and wading back to the shore and then laid him across the sand of the beach. Onlookers had began to gather over, unsure of what to do. Cloud was about to relive his soldier training and run back through CPR when a lifeguard broke through the crowd, pushing him aside.

When Denzel finally came round to everyones relief he insisted he was fine. He wanted to play in the sea some more, and he couldn't understand why the adults and poor Marlene looked so exhausted. Barrett came over hurriedly to see if Denzel was okay and gave the same a big sigh everyone else had. The quick and unanimous decision, except for that of Denzel, was to go back to the cabin.

***

Cloud watched as Marlene kept pulling Denzel back to relax on the sofa while Tifa sat in the middle of them laughing softly, trying to coax them both to relax. It made him feel happy and he couldn't quite identify why. Maybe it was because they were his family; they were his to protect and he had succeeded today, twice even. It made him feel ten times the man he was. They made him feel ten times the man he was.

They all ate dinner on the sofas opposite the TV as they watched some of the films Denzel and Marlene had rented from a local shop. Tifa hadn't cooked, Barrett and Cloud had insisted on it. Luckily for Cloud Barrett could cook a decent meal.

Marlene was sat underneath one of Barrett's large arms, hugging a creamy felt blanket. Her eyes were beginning to close. On the opposite sofa Denzel was fast asleep against Tifa's side, who was sitting next to Cloud. She was beginning to doze off too with occasional lulls of her head to one side, and then the other, before she'd suddenly wake herself up again with a start. It was when Tifa's head hit his shoulder like a soft pillow and stayed there that Cloud realised she had finally fallen asleep. She looked peaceful.

"Cloud..." she uttered dreamily in her sleep and Barrett looked round from the TV. She had lightly gripped the fabric of Cloud's shirt that came over his bicep and snuggled into his shoulder, hiding her face slightly from view. Barrett's face softened, and then he made an expression crossed between an "Aw" and a smirk. He gave Cloud a nod and Cloud nodded back. They'd give them all a few more minutes, but it looked like it was time for bed.

He carefully moved from underneath Tifa's grip and eased her sleeping form to spread across the rest of the sofa's cusions. Then he gently ruffled Denzel's hair to wake him up enough to move and get himself to bed. Barrett had carried Marlene into the room that she was sharing with Tifa while she had slept soundlessly in his arms, undisturbed.

One more left.

He bent down beside the sofa and paused while he tried to work out how deeply asleep Tifa was. But he felt he would feel guilty waking her up either way when she looked so calm, a world away from the busyness and stresses of Seventh Heaven on a typical evening. And so he sighed, sliding his hands underneath her back and shoulders to prepare to lift her. It was then her eyes began to laze open. She blinked and then murmured as she slowly propped herself up onto her hands.

He withdrew his own hands onto his knees as his gaze moved to her face. She stifled a yawn behind her hands and pulled herself upright on the chair, forcing her feet onto the carpet of the floor. Her eyes were beautiful against the dark red of the sofa, that was enhanced by the warm mahogany wood of the walls and fireplace, the soft ivory cream of the carpet, and the fire crackling in the corner of his eye, throwing shadows over a side of the room he could not see. As he looked even longer at the dark hair falling leisurely over her shoulders, the dark contrast offered by her slender eyebrows and long, thick eyelashes and the redness of her lips, they began to stand out to him as if someone had suddenly turned up the color saturation of his vision.

She turned her peaceful eyes towards him.

"I think I'm tired," she murmured.

He held out his hand to pull her up.

"Time for bed," he smiled gently.

She smirked in her tired way and let him pull her up. She faced him.

"Good night, Cloud."

"Good night, Tifa," he returned and watched her walk away, holding her arms loosely around herself as she shuffled into her and Marlene's bedroom and shut the door, just before stifling another of her cute little yawns.

He found himself smiling as he stood in the warm centre of the room, the fire slipping away into the depths of its ashes in the fireplace. He then realised he was scratching the back of his head, an old nervous habit. He shook it off, but his lips remained curved slightly upwards.

I had a great day, Tifa.

Author's Note: Red honey is very very real and very very delicious. Also a thumbs-up to all who recognised Pride and Prejudice as one of thee most famous and favorited romance novels ever in English Literature. (So much for Cloud's pre-judgement)! And I hope you all enjoyed this one. I enjoyed writing it (as always). I apologise for the lateness, we switched Internet providers half-way through the week and I had no connection for a few days. But you know what? I hope you all enjoy the next chapter even more...