Sometimes at work, I wish we had more meetings, giving us a legitimate reason to skive.

I wonder, by writing in so many meetings for Cloud – is he then a professional skiver?

Welcome to Chapter 3!

{Chapter Three: Wings of an Angel}

There was a whole week of peace for Cloud after the 'Tifa Lockhart Contract' landed. The spot for Marlene Wallace A.K.A. the kid in the contract, has been reserved in the elitist Midgar Institution until her eventual graduation.

Tseng and Reeve have been updating Cloud on the progress of the LOVELESS concert, and are working on a possible tour next month to handle the demands beyond Midgar. Genesis seems to be in overdrive these few days, having already completed the scores needed for the concert. It was rumored that he has already completed what seems like half of the music scores for his next album. Reeve had to even talk him out of his crazy trance and focus him on the upcoming concert.

Cloud finally has time for himself.

Perhaps it was the guilt of not visiting her last Friday night, this week Cloud has made sure to spend a lot more time with Aerith. On days he can make time, he would drive to her office to have lunch with her, visit the wedding planner with her, and try out different hotel's banquet dishes with her.

Aerith though, seemed a lot less enthusiastic than before. She would go on a daze sometimes when looking at Cloud, and he would hold her hand to snap her out of it.

"What's wrong?" He kissed the back of her hand, his focus split from the road.

"Nothing." She replied, looking out of the passenger side window.

He squeezed her hand tighter. "You know you can always talk to me."

There was a long pause and Cloud parked his car on the walkway to her apartment. The building is owned by Ilfalna, and Aerith stays at the penthouse here.

He turns off the car engine and pulls her so she leaned against him. "I'm sorry I was so busy last week." He kissed her forehead, and felt her skin tremble under his lips. "You know Genesis has been making my life a living hell."

He closed his eyes and feels her shaking in his arms. She was crying. "It's okay, Aerith." He kissed her again, "you can talk to me."

"Cloud…" She looked up at him, her eyes glistering with tears in the moonlight. Cloud thought of how beautiful she is. "I – I…"

He waited for her to continue, but she just covered her face in her palms and sobbed. He held her until she calmed down.

"I want to leave this place," she murmured, her face still buried in her hands. "I'm sorry, Cloud."

Cloud tried to understand what she meant. "You will need to give me a couple of years; I can't leave now, the Don…"

"Without you, Cloud." She cuts him off. "I want to leave this place." She looks up at him, her eyes tired but determined. "I am going to Wutai, Icicle Village, Nibelheim… Anywhere that may need help."

He could not find his words as he watched her free herself from his arms. "There are so many needy children; I think this is a good time for me to do what I've always wanted."

"What do you mean 'a good time'?" He pulled her back to him. "We are about to get married!"

There were dark rings beneath her eyes, something Cloud has not noticed before. She must have been staying up lately, thinking. Cloud felt his heart sink. Thinking about this!

Aerith held his face in her hands, he could see himself in her eyes; shocked, broken and lost. "Let's call it off, Cloud."Her voice was faint, fleeting but firm. "Please let me do this." She kissed him on the lips and they stayed there for a minute before he loosened his grip on her arms.

He watched as she stepped out of the car. She walked slowly back to her apartment; usually he would send her to her door, but today, he watched through the windshield as she walked alone. He thought the rays of sunlight reflecting off the back of her dress made her look like an angel ready to spread her wings; he could only watch as she walked away into her future, different from what they have planned so long together.

Cloud could not remember how long he stayed, parked on side of the road beside her apartment, but the sun was already setting. He thought about the first movie they watched together, how she clasp her fist against her chest when the music turned suspenseful. He remembered he pulled her hands and cupped it between his, and rubbing her cold fingers until they warmed up. Even under the dim lighting, he could tell that her face was red.

He thought of the first time he truly experienced a day in her life, in her house filled with dogs and cats, running her around when they were hungry. He remembered pinching his nose as he cleared up the pee box and wondering how he would ever live with her if they got married.

He thought of their first kiss together, after a whole month of dating. It was their first, under the moonlight in the garden of the Church she attended when she volunteered to decorate the garden for Christmas. It was a kiss in front of the God she believed in, and it was a promise he made to himself.

He asked himself if he could give her up, and answering him, was just an overwhelming sense of loneliness.

Cloud thought he would cry, but there was just emptiness. He looked up to her apartment again, and the lights are off. What is she doing in the dark, he thought, is she hurting too? He unlocked his phone and dropped her a text message.

'I'll wait here tonight. If you wish to change your decision, then come to me.' 17:47

'Give me five years, and I will travel with you.' 17:55

'I promise.' 18:02

Cloud opened the door and locked his car. He walked over to the side of the car where he can see her room clearly; he leaned against the car and looked at the time, 18:05. He will wait tonight, until morning, for her to change her mind.

All night he waited, and he felt a part of him die away with every hour passed.

The next few days crawled by in a blur. Cloud buried himself with work; robotic and unfeeling, he checked through every department's spending, every little email that he would previously ignore. He packed his schedule with meetings, and visited almost all his business partners. There is a big void in his heart, and he tried to plaster it with work.

There is still too much time, because he could not sleep at night. So he started going to the gym in the late nights, or listen to mid night DJ's. He even downloaded podcasts to listen to during the drives to work and back home, about topics he did not care for. He shunned love songs, he shunned movies, and he shunned anything that would remind him of Aerith.

This was his first break up, and he had no experience dealing with it. Don gave him a call the other day to ask, but did not pursue further when Cloud said it was Aerith's decision. The Don did not bother with his personal life much, unless it affected his work.

He briefly remembered that the concert was coming up this weekend, but he had Reeve taking care of that. He found himself dreading the weekends, when he will definitely struggle to keep all twenty-four hours occupied.

It was the wee hours on Friday night, Saturday morning. Cloud thought he would sleep easily after having gone out to the club with his business partners; after an eternity of blankly staring at the ceiling, he decided he was not going to get any sleep after all. He brushed his teeth again to get rid of any lingering alcohol breath, changed to his gym clothes and drove to the office.

Of course there was a huge gym in the building where he lived, but he did not like sharing gym equipments with others, so he often just worked out at his personal gym at the office. Well, it was not owned by him, but the Don did not use the gym at all when he was CEO, so Cloud had it renovated when he took over.

An office this huge, meant that it was bound to have plenty rumors about it being haunted. But Cloud was sure; the way he looked now would scare any ghosts away. He rubbed his throbbing temples and leaned against the glass wall of the elevator.

As the elevator moved pass the twentieth floor, Cloud could see the lights were still turned on. It was normal for the singers and song writers to stay late when working on their new album, which is perhaps one of the reasons FMG has so much supernatural rumors; or it could be that the security guard simply forgot to switch off the lights. He decided as a good CEO that he would switch off the lights if there was no one, or stop by to provide some motivation if there were people working on their music.

He pressed for the lift door to open, and stepped out. He could hear a faint melody of a piano playing and followed the music to a studio; his senses has always been incredibly acute. Like all rooms, it had a security lock and Cloud tapped his wallet to it.

The studio was made sound proof, so he could only make out the tune more clearly when he put on the headset from the recording booth.

Tifa was seated behind a concert grand piano and he watched her from the glass separation behind a glass separation, from the recording studio. The architect of the building very smartly placed the door at the back of the recording studio so it would not disturb whoever was playing, or singing.

He thought the tune sounded very familiar; it felt like an old tale, and reminded him of flower fields and the countryside; it was not an elaborate piece, but it was peaceful and almost tugged at something buried and dormant in his memories.

Tifa saw him and stopped playing, "Mr. Strife?" She stood up.

He nodded at her, and he could see a faint reflection of himself with messy hair and gym clothes on the glass pane. He put down the headset and walked to where she was. "Good morning Tifa, why are you still here?"

She looked surprised that he would walk over to speak with her, and he tried to ignore the fact that he looked like a mess. "We just had the rehearsal for the concert at Midgar studio." She blushed, "I was too nervous to sleep so I wanted to come and practice some."

"I see." He pulled a chair from the side of the room and joined her at the piano. "Was the piece you were just playing part of new concert score?" He asked.

"No, I was just practicing my fingers with some simple tune. I got tired of rehearsing the same songs." She laughed.

"What is the name of the piece then?" He was genuinely interested. "Did you make it yourself?"

She paused and looked at him. "I made this with a friend a long time ago, she smiled."

He nodded; guess she did not want to tell him the name of the music piece. "Can you play it again?" He leaned against the side of the piano.

"Sure." She smiled and sat down again. He adjusted to rest back on back of the chair and folded his arms as he usually does.

Listening from the start, Cloud felt a wave of nostalgia wash by him; this seems like the first time in days since he last felt anything but emptiness.

He closed his eyes and let himself drift in this strange emotion.

"…Come here, Cloud!" The voice of a young girl was calling out to him. He felt a tug and someone was pulling him along. "Come, Come!"

"Wait, wait!" He felt his body spoke and he was panting. He realized, he was in someone else's body again, but this time he was running, not falling.

"Quickly, Cloud!" The little girl shouted, the wind blowing at her hair. They were running across a field of flowers, he could not see her face, but he could tell they were little, and the tall flowers in the field was up to their waist. "Quickly!"

They struggle pass the field and came to a mansion. The sun was high up in the sky and all they could smell was the overwhelming sweet scent of magnolia flowers hanging from the huge tree on the walkway to the mansion. "Faster! I have to be home before 8!" She looked back at him, but her face was covered in the shadow of the tree. They climbed through the open window beside the main door and let themselves in.

He could feel the thoughts of the boy, which his conscience is on. He knew that they have been here many times before, and he knew exactly where she was bringing him.

The mansion was kept clean; but the owners were not in. They walked up a flight of stairs and into a long corridor, and opened the second door on the right, where there was a big wooden square piano. They walked towards the piano and he took a seat beside her. He tried to look at her face, but the body always had his eyes pinned to the floor. He could tell the boy was extremely nervous around her, nervous yet blissful.

She started playing the same song she always played when they were together. He could tell she had a lot to improve on when it comes to her piano skills, but he could still make out the melody.

"Why do you always just play this song?" He asked softly when she was done, and cupped her cold sore fingers between his.

"Dummy!" She knocked her forehead against his. He tried to focus on her face but her features were a blur. "I made this for you! This is our song!" He knew the answer, but he just wanted to hear her say it. "That's why it's called Cloud –"

Bang! Cloud opened his eyes; the sharp pain on his forehead brought forward an embarrassing realization. He has just fallen asleep here, while listening to his employee play; not to mention he only woke up because he knocked his head on the piano. She was still playing the same score.

"Mr. Strife?" Tifa looked over at him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He rubbed his head. "What time is it?"

She looked over at the digital clock on the wall. "Looks like it's already morning, it's 8:15 now." He has slept for about three hours then.

"You played all night?" She nodded and he saw that her eyes were red and tired. "Why didn't you rest?" he stretched his neck.

"Well," she looked at him wryly, "you kept grunting every time I stopped."

Cloud rolled his eyes and turned around. He would be damned if she saw how his face was burning with embarrassment now. "Bullshit."

"It's true!" She folded her arms. "I should have taken a video to prove!"

"Whatever." He adjusted his shirt, and combed his fingers through his hair. "Are you hungry?"

Tifa stood up and made a big stretch with her hands linked above her head and her foot on tip toe. "Yes, sir, I'm famished!" She smiled at him and walked towards the door. "What should we have for breakfast? You should know Midgar better."

"I know a hotel nearby that serves Junon style breakfast." He suggested.

Tifa turned back and studied his face. He cocked a brow at her and watched as her eyes scanned down to his t-shirt and sweat pants.

He blushed again and turned to pick up and chair. "I have a change of clothes at my office." He stacked the chair back with the others by the side of the room.

"How about we go somewhere that it's perfectly fine to dress like that?" She spread her arms, showing that she was also wearing something simple, a white turtleneck tank top that hugged her figure tightly and showed her belly button when she stretched, above a pair of black of black skinny jeans. Simple, yet stunning. "I'll bring you!"

Cloud Strife has spent twenty-five years in Midgar, even though twelve of it were missing memories, he was sure he would know the city better than this new kid on the block. But Gaia, was he wrong.

"Ayy, Tee!" A big guy wearing singlet and a full body of tattoo from his bald head down to his calves greeted them. "Who's dis? Yo' man?" He opened the door and almost shoved them in. Cloud shrugged him off unnoticeably and brushed his sleeves where the man's oily hands touched. He really did not enjoy being near complete strangers that were in no way related to his work of his life.

"No, silly!" Tifa laughed and punched the man on his bare arms. Cloud watched in disgust as the guy's flesh bounced from the impact. This man was bulky, with a thick bicep where the shape of his muscles rested under a layer of fat. "This is my big boss. Don't offend him or I'll have to sleep on the streets!"

The man laughed and Cloud could feel the floor shake.

They sat at a small square table by a greasy window with some unidentified black matter stuck on the sides. The stool was fixed onto the floor and the round cushioned top would make the sharpest of noises every time he moved. He hates this place.

"Trust me; you'll love the food here!" She smiled, trying to ignore the look on his face that would put the coldest temperatures on the mountains of Icicle to shame.

He flipped the menu, and who would have ever thought that it would be greasy like the rest of this eatery. He closed it immediately.

Tifa waived for the waitress to come and take their order. "I'll have your breakfast stuffed muffins and a cinnamon roll please. For drinks, I'll like some OJ, thanks!"

"Black coffee." The waitress and Tifa both looked at him, waiting for him to continue. "That's all."

"Huh?" They both exclaimed in unison. "How about you try some of their pan cakes? It's really good!" Tifa suggested.

"No." He passed the menu to the waitress and folded his arms; he would never want to lay his hands on the table.

The waitress was about to go when Tifa stopped her. "Can you get him a set of bacon and eggs please?"

"No." Cloud insisted. Tifa winked at the waitress and the waitress winked back; the order was taken.

"It's not good for your stomach to just drink black coffee without food in the morning." Tifa glared at him. For a moment Cloud thought that look was familiar, as though he has seen it countless times before; and in that moment, he forgot to retort.

"I know this is not a place that someone like you would ever visit," Tifa put on a gentle smile. "But this is my world, and I'm not ashamed of it."

He kept his silence, but his brows are no longer knitted together.

"I really want to thank you, Cloud Strife." She looked at him intently so he could see the sincerity in her eyes. "Thank you for granting my wish of giving Marlene a good education; thank you for putting up with me even though I was really rude when we first met, and thank you for helping me even though I was just a stranger that lives a parallel life to yours." She extended her hands to him. "Perhaps we can come to know each other over. I am Tifa Lockhart, 23 years old, I work at a bar but I have the alcohol tolerance of a 3 year old." She flashed him a huge smile that shows the top row of her teeth, and her ruby eyes were squinted together in a line.

He shakes her hand loosely.

"Alright!" She squeezed his hand before letting go. "Today is my treat! That is also the main reason why I insisted to come here. I wouldn't be able to afford a meal in your kind of places even if I were to save up for a whole year!"

The waitress serves the drinks and she took a big sip. "From now, I will really start to know you for who you are." She mumbled under her breath, her eyes downcast. He wonders if she meant for him to hear it.

The food was served fast as there were no other guests at this time on a weekend. Having been persuaded by Tifa, Cloud ate his breakfast albeit unwillingly at first. He has to admit that the food was pretty decent, and maybe he would not mind to come again in the future, maybe with her. He doubts anyone else he knows would eat here, except maybe Reno. Nah, not even Reno.

When it came to the time to pay, Tifa insisted; she held out a fifty gil note, and lectured him. "See this note? To you, it is small, but to me, it is big. That is the difference between us. If you were to pay for today's meal, then the significance is a lot lower!"

"Dat's right, kid." The big man slapped his back. "Let da lady pay!"

Cloud felt like his head was spinning from all these nonsense, but he let her pay. Just this once, he thought. Anyways, he did pay for her hotel previously, and the little girl's hefty school fees.

They walked back to his car, which was surrounded by kids in awe of its beauty. He pressed the car key and the kids dispersed.

"Do you live around here?" He asked, as she fastened her seatbelt.

"Pretty close." She replied. "It's a nice neighborhood."

He looked at the old buildings around, the paint peeling off most of the shops, and the walls were full of graffiti. Nice neighborhood my foot, this place also known as the slums "Why don't you get a better place closer to the city?" The slums were on the outskirts of central Midgar, about 30 minutes drive from FMG. Between here and there, there are plenty of decent housings for rent.

"Well, lodging in Midgar is really expensive." She rolled her eyes at him. "Anyways, my boss from the bar at Costa Del Sol – Barret – decided to move here for Marlene so I'm renting a small room a unit above theirs."

He could not think of a suitable response. He may have suffered through bullying, loss of memories and recently, heartbreak; but he was never in poverty.

She guide him through the narrow roads filled with potholes until he reached sector seven, where she pointed for him to turn in. "Thanks for sending me home." She unbuckles the seat belt. "Since we are friends now, sort of," she turned to look at him, with an eye narrowed in a wince and her lips upturned. "Can I call you Cloud?"

He shrugged, "I thought you didn't like the name."

"Uh… That was a misunderstanding." She scratched her head. "Anyways, will you be at the concert tonight?"

"Yeah." He said without thinking; he has never been to any of Genesis' concerts, but he needed to find ways to spend his time.

"Cool! It starts at eight, but I'll be there at five to get ready. Wish me luck!" He nodded.

She waved at him and walked to her home with light weighted footsteps. He wonders if she will have some time to rest before the long night, and felt a bit guilty for keeping her up all night.

He cocked his head and looked at the neon signboard above the small run down bar she just entered, "Seventh Heaven", with the 'S' looking like it was about to fall off anytime.

So this is her life. Strangely, he was not repulsed by it.

I really hope the sequence of events with Aerith is not too abrupt, the reason will be told later. Also, I tried to make the progression between Cloud and Tifa as gradual and natural as possible.

If you liked it, do leave a review / favorite / follow so I know I'm on the right track! I also post my thoughts on writing these chapters on Tumblr blog posts (username is also lacielemons), so you can check it out if you're interested on the thoughts behind the chapter. I only use it as a place to pen my thoughts so there won't be many reposts etc. I barely know how to use it.

Thanks for the review: Nexxus176

Thanks ftor the Follows: Tabark, Shiranai Atsune, LadyofReincarnation

Thanks for the Author Alert: Ybarra87, Shiranai Atsune, LadyofReincarnation

My virgin favorite (both story author): LadyofReincarnation

Thank you and have a great weekend ahead!

P.S. Chapter 4 will probably be next weekend.

XOXO, Lacie

Words this chapter without Author's crap: 4059

Worlds total thus far without Author's crap: 10,770