Love, Aerith
Chapter 4: This Feeling
Aerith sighed impatiently looking at the screen of her cell-phone where the message "I'll be back in two days, some important mission has come up." could be read. She shook her head closing her eyes. That's what you get for hanging around with SOLDIERS, she mused to herself. She cared for Cloud more than what she wanted to care and was already too much involved in his life not to worry every time he went on a mission. She had learned her lesson already but it was still hard. She let her back fall on her bed and laid there looking at the ceiling wondering if she should answer him saying she would be waiting. She rolled on her stomach and started typing different kinds of messages to send him, but she kept deleting them.
"Ok, I'll be waiting for you when you come back." She typed and deleted.
"I'll be praying for your safety." She typed, crinkled her nose and deleted it.
"Two days? Are you kidding me? The mission or me! You decide!" She typed, laughed aloud and then deleted it.
"Fine." She typed and thought it would be too harsh which she ended up deleting. Half an hour later she gave up thinking what she should send him and finally opted for a "Be careful please." She snapped her phone shut and rested her forehead on her pink bedcovers. The answer came almost too quickly and when her phone beeped she quickly snapped it back open and eagerly read the message Cloud sent.
"I will. Don't worry." He had written. She stared at the screen for a couple of minutes before snapping back to reality.
"Yeah… As if I could not be worried." She exhaled sadly and fell asleep moments later.
Cloud ran fast with his sword on his hands, slashing monsters all around him that kept appearing out of thin air. His forehead was frowned and his eyes were focused, his muscles tightened when he was fighting. But the monsters were only too many when they surrounded him and soon she stopped seeing him from under the pile of hideous creatures on top of him. She tried screaming his name but it came out a suffocating gasp.
When the pile of monsters lifted with who was under it, monsters went flying in all directions. She looked at the man appearing from under them and she saw his spiky black hair and glazing blue eyes covered in blood. She widened her eyes and struggled for air as she desperately looked again at the man in front of her. It was Cloud she saw this time, blood rushing out from his forehead to his neck, arms were bruised, his clothes ragged on the chest.
His huge sword slipped from his hand and plunged to the floor in a loud thud. He lifted his hand to cover a wound on his shoulder and dropped to his knees while looking at her. His eyes were wide-open and his expression was painful, his lips slightly parted. The red color of his blood was so vivid it made her panic.
"CLOUD!" Aerith screamed sitting up on her bed. She looked around her bedroom panting; her heart was racing inside of her chest, she could hear it bumping loudly in her ears. The bedroom was silent and dark. She lifted her hand to her forehead to clean the sweat and breathed profoundly trying to calm herself. It was a dream. It was a dream. It was just a nightmare. She kept repeating in her head. She hugged her legs between her arms, rested her forehead on her knees and cried softly remembering the pain she felt when watching Cloud hurt.
Aerith reached for her cell-phone and quickly typed him a message. "Are you alright?" She sent. Because he didn't answer her, she didn't rest the whole night through.
When the first rays of sunlight of the third day Cloud had been gone, came into her bedroom from the slightly opened shutters of her window, Aerith rose to her feet and dressed a pink long-sleeved turtleneck shirt, put on a red skirt and her brown hiking boots. She sat down in front of her chest of drawers and looked at the mirror. Her reflex had rings under her emerald green eyes and she looked more tired than rested for someone who had just wakened up. She stood up and grabbed her cell-phone checking for new messages. The screen was blank, empty. She let out a restless sigh and walked around her bedroom back and forth, not knowing what to do. She tied her hair on a ponytail, leaving the light-brown bangs loose, left her bedroom and went downstairs.
He said he'd be back in two days and nothing. She thought but wondered if she wasn't just being paranoid. She had been through that kind of anxiety before, she knew missions could take much longer than what had been planned but still, after that nightmare she had, she kept having a strange feeling. I can't be friends with a SOLDIER, I have to stop… Well, technically he's no longer SOLDIER but still, he is killing me. She babbled to herself.
Not bearing to stay inside the house, she walked outside, standing in the middle of her little garden and looking at the break on the platform where the sunlight was coming in from. The reason why she could grow flowers outside her house. The cold morning was still a little blue as the sun hadn't come up fully in the sky yet, everything was silent, even the wind wasn't blowing although the air was freezing.
Cloud… Where are you?
But suddenly she heard the scratching of boots coming from down the path. Her eyes met a pair of tired blue ones. Cloud stumbled and had to lean against one shattered wall to regain his balance. Blood was running in a small stream from his forehead and his arms were as bruised as she had never seen them. The bleeding cuts on his skin made her shudder.
"No… Cloud!" Aerith gasped in shock and ran toward him. When she reached him she noticed his bruises were worst than what she saw from the distance. He gritted his teeth in pain and moaned as she lifted his arm to place it around her shoulders for support. Her arm went around his waist and she gathered all her strength to help him walk.
"I was attacked." He said in between gasps for air.
"I knew something was wrong. Wasn't there anyone to help you?" Aerith asked, her voice came out shaky.
"Mercenaries work alone." He said and grumbled in pain, his chest felt sore when he spoke. "I'm sorry Aerith… I had nowhere else to go… Did you miss me? I was thinking about you all the time. I had to get here as fast as I… could."
"Don't speak Cloud. You're hurt. And probably hallucinating." She blinked at his jabbering. They reached her house's entrance. "I'll take care of you now."
Aerith's mother worriedly came to help them climb up the stairs and the young brunette finally laid him down on her bed. As soon as he felt the comfortableness of her mattress, Cloud fell asleep of exhaustion.
Aerith grabbed her medicine kit and took it to her bedroom. She sat on her knees on the floor beside him and dipped a piece of white cloth in a pan full of water. She twisted the cloth and softly started cleaning his wounds, watching him soundlessly asleep. His chest went up and down shallowly.
"Oh Cloud…" Her eyes filled with tears and she bit her lower lip watching his bad condition. Even his spiky blond hair was all messy. "I'm going to take care of you."
She passed the wet cloth on his forehead cleaning up the blood from his face and with alcohol and a bit of cotton she disinfected the cuts in his arms. More than bleeding cuts he had purple bruises under them. There was also blood soaking up his turtleneck sleeveless dark shirt so she decided to carefully take it off so she could see what was wrong under his clothes. His bare chest had three long claw cuts from his shoulder down to his abdomen and she had to quickly clean them with water and bandage his chest after applying some homemade ointment her mother had taught her to make to better heal the deep wounds.
She felt his smooth skin under her fingertips as she bandaged his chest noticing in relief that she was almost done treating him.
She sighed when she was over, leaned back on her knees and looked at him sleeping. His face didn't look peaceful and she wished she could do more to ease his pain. She rose to her feet and bended down to stroke his hair away from his forehead. She leaned down and pressed her lips gently on it, resting her forehead then on his. She stayed there just hearing him breathe slowly and feeling his warm skin on hers. If she had had any doubts about him before, she was now sure of one thing.
She couldn't live without Cloud Strife.
The next day Aerith woke up and realized she had fallen asleep with her head on her arms next to him on the bed and the rest of her body sitting down on the floor, leaning against the bed. She hadn't left his side just waiting for him to wake up. She soon found out what had wakened her up. His hand was delicately caressing her hair. She lifted her head to look at him and smiled seeing that he was awake and looking down at her sitting with his back leaned against the bed frame.
"You should have slept here, not me." He said looking at her apologetically.
"I think you needed it more than me." She sobbed, happy that he was alright.
"I'm sorry if I gave you too much work."
"Don't say that… I'm glad you came here. You came back." She stared into his ocean-blue beams as they stared back at her and she couldn't hold in much longer. She rose to her feet to sit on her knees on the bed next to him. She carefully wrapped her arms around him making sure she wouldn't hurt him and sat there embracing him while crying on his shoulder. He slowly placed his arms around her resting his hands on her back. "I was so scared."
"I'm sorry." He said closing his eyes and breathing in the flowery scent from her neck. Every time he breathed this aroma of fresh flowers mixed with the vanilla smell of her skin, he felt he was home. She was the closest thing he had to that.
"Don't be…" She parted from the hug to clean her eyes and look at him making sure he seemed alright. "But… I can't lose you Cloud."
"You won't." He assured her. "You haven't given me an answer to my question yet." He had a small smirk on his lips. Yes, he was alright.
"You remember that?" Aerith knew what he was talking about.
"Yeah."
"I thought it was the pain talking. Oh Cloud look at you, how could something like that happen to you? You've lost so much blood."
"I've been through worst. Trust me." He said looking away. "I just… made a mistake this time. You still haven't answered."
"Of course I missed you Cloud." She looked at him seriously. "Silly question."
"Was it you undressing me then?" He asked finally.
"Well…" Aerith swallowed when she noticed his bare chest and well-defined firm abdomen muscles where the white bandages didn't cover. "I had to; you were bleeding from your chest. You gave me quite the scare."
"It won't happen again…" He chuckled at her slightly pink cheeks.
"Ok then… You seem a lot better, do you want some tea? I can go make some tea, it will be good for you. I'll be right back, you just stay here, it's not like you can go anywhere looking like that but you know what I mean. Does camomile sound good to you? Alright camomile it is." She babbled nervously getting up and fixing her clothes before leaving the bedroom stumbling on the carpet as she reached for the door, cursing herself for looking silly. When she left, Cloud smiled to himself from watching her uneasy. He had missed her too.
What am I doing? She wondered stopping outside her bedroom.
When Aerith came back into the room, she didn't carry any trey of tea or anything like it, her hands were free and she opened the door in a rush. Her face seemed a little flushed and her lips were pressed together in a firm line. She hesitated at the door for a brief second holding the doorknob behind her back and looking straight at him. When she moved she walked across the bedroom with haste.
She reached the bed where he was sitting on and putting one knee next to his leg to kneel beside him she grabbed his head between her opened hands and leaned in to kiss him fully on the lips. Stroke by surprise, Cloud widened his eyes before slowly closing them and placing his hands on her waist kissing her back passionately. Her hand drifted off to the back of his head tangling her fingers between his blond hair. He pulled her carefully to him until she sat next to him with her legs on top of his. He moaned softly not controlling the sudden pain he felt on his sore body and she stopped kissing him to look at his face.
"Did I hurt you?" She asked quickly. He shook his head and smiled slightly pulling her closer to him again. He quietly leaned his forehead against hers and slowly pushed forward to kiss her silky soft lips again. This time the kiss was deeper, eager.
"Cloud." She parted again from the kiss grabbing his arm. "I've just realized something."
"Humm?" He asked confused and still a little dizzy from the kiss. He was addicted to her lips, didn't want to let go.
"I'm in love with you." She whispered softly in his ear. He stared at her deeply, his sapphire-blue eyes glowing by the faint morning light. She had told him the words he had longed to hear from her and she had finally found the word to express the feeling she had inside her every time she was with him. She had known it from before but hadn't realized it had happened again, for Cloud this time. Seeing him hurt and missing him for the past three days made her open her eyes about the SOLDIER. She couldn't afford loosing Cloud.
She looked intently at his face staring back at hers. His lips were slightly curved in a tiny smile by the right corner and his eyes were staring directly into hers, stunned. She smiled.
He was all she needed.
Note: I'm really sorry for the late update on this one, but inspiration has been lacking on this story… But finally I got over it! I really hope you liked this chapter! Thank you for reading and for the people reviewing. Please tell me what you think, it truly helps a lot. Zack will finally make his grand entrance next chapter, I just needed Aerith and Cloud's relationship to develop a little bit more! Thank you.
