Chapter 44: Peace
Tifa sank her toes into the warm sand and shut her eyes with a long exhale. When she opened them again, she drew in a deep breath and the air was full of warm salt, rampant flowers and night breezes.
Paradise.
Somehow, through everything, Tifa had ended up in paradise.
Behind her the wind moved through the palm trees and it sounded almost like rain. In front of her the waves whispered up onto the shore and back out to sea again, sharing ancient secrets with the land over and over again. The night was full of stars in a deep blue sky and under her feet the sand was warm from sleeping in the sun all day long. Content, Tifa sank down to sit in the sand.
During the day the beach was crowded with people, strangers passing in and out. Loud children, young people trying to impress each other, high-ranking executives forgetting to leave their work behind them. In the early evening it was all young couples and honey mooners strolling along the water's edge with stars above and stars in their eyes. Now though – this late at night – Tifa had the beach to herself.
They'd come to Costa del Sol two weeks ago, catching a ride with a cargo steamer that didn't mind a few extra passengers if they had the gil to pay. Gil Zack and Cloud both apparently had and Tifa didn't ask how. They'd found a small cottage, lost back where all the artists and professional entertainers that flocked to tourist hot spots like this lived. Tifa had gotten a job almost immediately at the local bar because she was willing to work any shift they needed, even the really late ones like tonight. It made the gil come in fluidly and she didn't have to worry too much about the customers getting rude. After the days spent fighting monsters and hiking for miles – she found she was a lot more fit than she'd been before and her moves more effective and fast. She was proud of that – and after she'd laid out the first groper on the floor, the rest of the patrons started to respect that as well. Now she dug her long fingers into the sand behind her and leaned back, tipping her head to enjoy the stars above.
No Mako reactor. No green smog.
Sometimes – most times – Tifa liked to pretend this was her future. Working a job she enjoyed, living in a crowded, friendly little house with people she cared about. Spending her nights on the beach watching the stars…
She felt him behind her before he made noise so that she'd know he was there and she smiled even though she didn't turn around. Cloud came up next to her and sat down, leaning back on his own hands. He smelled like ocean and sun and sunscreen lotion. He'd gotten a job working on one of the fishing boats that went out deep early every morning to bring back the rare fish that the patrons would pay a great deal to eat in the expensive restaurants that night. She thought – she thought he enjoyed it. He always came back tired but relaxed looking and his skin was slowly starting to warm into a darker color. Cloud had fair skin and burned easily. Luckily it hadn't taken a genius to figure that out. He'd wash up after the boat got back to the dock in the late afternoon, usually with a swim in the ocean and then nap. More nights than not, he'd end up at the bar during Tifa's shift, sitting on his stool near the wall with a single drink in his hands. As they had at Seventh Heaven, the patrons got used to him being there and accepted his presence after the first few nights.
Tifa was fairly sure everyone thought they were dating. Since no one said anything out loud, she didn't have to stumble through trying to correct it though. As bohemian as their neighbors were, Tifa nicely enough didn't have to try to explain how she'd ended up living in a tiny house with two men her age she wasn't related to.
Zack had gotten a job as a tour guide of all things and Tifa was fairly sure that the ratio of females wanting to see the sights of 'beautiful del Sol' had tripled since he'd signed on. His boss probably couldn't stop pinching himself over the increase in business, Tifa thought with a smile.
Red, of course, didn't work but he'd disappear into the surrounding area for several days at a time only to be back at home, dozing on the couch, when they came in. Tifa always made a big deal over him and the guys tended to roll their eyes and pretend they didn't care. Even though she noticed Zack ordering from the delivery place that they all knew Red seemed to enjoy the food from most whenever the large carnivore came back from one of his extended journeys.
Now Tifa sighed and shifted over to lay on her back and rest her head on Cloud's thigh, his raised other leg keeping the sand from blowing into her face. This was their time – sitting on the beach in the middle of the night, watching the stars. Zack and Red were a constant part of Tifa's day and she loved it. After work however, before she'd go home, she'd sit on the beach with Cloud, who always came whether he'd been at the bar or not. This was their time. It was just for her and Cloud and neither of their other two companions ever tried to disturb it or join them. As if they understood.
Tifa and Cloud needed time for only each other.
It centered Tifa, being able to be near him in the silence but she wasn't the one that had started their habit. She'd come to the beach on her own one night after work when Cloud hadn't been there and settled down to enjoy the silence and the stars. Cloud had found her and silently sat down near her.
The next night he'd found her on the beach and sat near her again.
At first he'd sat a little bit apart, as if he didn't want to disturb her, but Tifa hadn't needed time to herself, she'd needed silence and peace. She found those with Cloud. So the third night, she'd scooted over to sit with her arm resting against his and since then it had become their own private routine.
Soft, Cloud's hand rose and gently brushed over Tifa's hair where it pooled against and over his thigh. She smiled but didn't take her eyes from the stars, exhaling in contentment as peace washed through her. At times like this it didn't matter if Cloud was in love with her or not. He loved her. She knew it, could feel it, and it was a quiet, precious, sure jewel in the center of her heart.
Sometimes – times like this – she had to make sure she didn't say anything. Because if she did, she knew she'd tell him she loved him – more, that she was in love with him – and she didn't dare. So it was easier to stay quiet and just enjoy the warm silence between them.
At times like this she could almost pretend they were normal and had nothing else in their lives but what was there in these moments.
No Mako reactors, no Shinra, no horrible tubes full of green energy, no Turks hunting for them…
Tifa's eyelids drifted closed and her lips relaxed into a smile as Cloud's gentle caress continued against her hair. She lifted a hand to lay the back of it against his thigh next to her head, fingers curled lightly upward. And it was all right. Because he needed these moments with her as much as she needed them with him.
For a long time they stayed that way and then finally Cloud's hand slid under Tifa's head and then slid down her back to lift her a little. She opened her eyes, lazy and full of the night and gave him a smile that he returned almost shyly. For such a weathered warrior there were still parts of him that were young and vulnerable. Tifa loved that about him too and she sat up with a hum and lightly touched his cheek. In these private moments she was allowed to touch him that way and not worry that he'd realize why.
He stood up when she was sitting upright on her own and offered his hand. Hers slipped easily into it, fingers curling as he drew her to her feet. Their hands parted so that they could knock the sand off of themselves and then she wrapped both of her hands around one of his arms and rested the side of her head against his shoulder as they started back toward the trees and the winding path that led back to their neighborhood and home. Still in silence. The way they came back every night.
Tifa didn't mind that some of their eccentric neighbors were still up and probably saw them this way. She knew the way it looked – and it kept the other girls away from Cloud. Not that he wasn't astoundingly clueless about the attention he got from them anyway…
It made Tifa smile against him as he opened the cottage door and slipped an arm around her to guide her into the darkness beyond. Red's strange tail tip provided the only light but Tifa knew the house from memory and wasn't worried about tripping over anything. She still let Cloud guide her. It meant he kept his arm around her a little while longer and she could press her nose into his throat and pretend she was more tired than she was just so that she could inhale the sun warmed, wonderful smell of him and feel his warmth soaking into her. He guided her into the single bedroom they all shared and got her to her bed between his and Zack's. She smiled against him again. They were still protective of her. And she continued to pretend she was barely awake just so that Cloud would settle her down onto her bed and she could turn her face into his sun lightened blond hair as he leaned over her to pull the blanket up. The way he did every night.
It was so worth sleeping in her clothes for.
He set the shoes she'd taken off when she'd first gotten to the beach and that he'd collected on their departure silently down next to her bed and then leaned over. Very tenderly, barely there, his fingertips brushed the hair back from her cheek and rested there for a minute before he pulled back and she heard him in the dark, moving over and settling down on his own bed.
Tifa lay there in the dark, full of the wonderful feeling of belonging and listening to the quiet sounds of the men sleeping on either side of her. Filled to the brim with peace, she fell asleep that way.
There were no dreams.
000
not ready to quit just yet? In a shameless self-advertising ploy, I will mention that I did upload a new one-shot story called Intangible. demonegg already caught it. It's a little bit darker than this one but I did have fun with it and I'd love some delicious reviews :)
