Please have as much fun reading this as I had writing it! :3 That is all

Serendipity

Taking Cloud's hand, Tifa stood, "You wanna go see Aeris?"

Understanding that Tifa meant the church, Cloud nodded.

"I'm not invited?" Cait-Reeve asked.

Tifa huffed a laugh, "Not this time, Reeve. Don't you still have to help clean this up? We've finished our part."

"But don't lock up the guy with mako enhancements for good yet," Cloud added, "I want to know how he got his procedure done."

Cait shrugged, "He's probably just a 2nd or 3rd class SOLDIER. Not very many of them left, but they're still around if you know where to look. A lot of them went into hiding after ShinRa fell, for obvious reasons."

Cloud crossed his arms, "I'd still like to talk to him."

"Alright. But don't take too long. If we're only going to restrain him, he'll start to fight back when he wakes up from Tifa's punch."

Cloud nodded. "Thanks, Reeve." He turned and looked at Tifa before walking with her towards Aeris' church.

Tifa walked in through the open doorway and looked around at the mostly destroyed church. She walked over to the center where the Flower Girl got her name. "Cloud, there are flowers blooming around the water!"

Cloud trotted over to Tifa and peered around the church. Flashes of all of his memories from here flipped through his head, good and bad. He stood next to Tifa, who had gotten to her knees and was trailing her fingers through the pool of water and the flower buds. Cloud sat down next to her and took off his shoes and rolled up his pant legs before putting his feet in the water. He calmly watched Tifa play in the pool shallows.

"Cloud, do you really think that's appropriate?" Tifa scolded when she saw his feet in the water. She blinked and touched her face, smearing a little bit of dirt from the fighting earlier. "What are you looking at?"

Cloud shrugged innocently, "Nothing."

"Oh, really? You should still get your feet out of the water."

Cloud smirked and shook his head, "Do you really think Aeris would let me off this easy if she was upset?"

Tifa was silent for a moment. She took off her shoes and dipped her feet in next to Cloud's. "What about Zack?" she asked.

"Huh?"

"I see you moved his sword here. Do you think he approves?"

Cloud looked up at the sword set in the dirt at the front of the church. It was cleaner than he remembered. "I think he's just happy that his memento is next to Aeris'."

Cloud and Tifa sat in silence for a time, appreciating each other's company and their surroundings. The flower buds coming up all around the water's edge were pink, white, and yellow, and somewhere above the church was a hole in Midgar's plate big enough to let light come streaming into the wrecked stone building. It was incredibly peaceful.

Cloud stared at Tifa again before he leaned back on his hands and murmured, as if talking to himself, "We should get married here…"

Tifa whipped her head in his direction and blinked. "Excuse me?"

Cloud blinked, then realized he had voiced his thought. He blushed deeply. "Did I…eh…say that out loud?"

Tifa nodded slowly, carefully in control of her voice. "Yeah..."

Cloud's face got brighter, "Oh. I, uh, didn't realize that…um…oh god, I can't recover that…"

Tifa crossed her arms to keep herself from jumping up and hugging Cloud as tight as she could and accepting the proposal (?). "You know…we haven't dated for very long," she stated. It was so hard not to squeal and ask if Cloud had meant what he said.

Cloud tangled a hand in his hair nervously and started pulling at the blond strands. "Well, I uh, I was just thinking, well, a lot has happened here… and I mean we've kinda known each other for a while, so, uh, y'know… if we WERE to get married, I think, uh, I think it would m-make the most sense i-if it was here… y'know? Like, it's a-a church and all… please say you understand…" Cloud scooted nervously away from Tifa.

Tifa leaned towards him, but was careful not to actually move closer to Cloud or he might run out of the building. "Did you just propose to me?" Tifa's voice was tense. Barely suppressing a girlish squeal.

Cloud pulled harder at the back of his head and tried to pass it off as scratching an itch, "I…don't know. Um, I was just kinda thinking a-aloud… what would you s-say if I was? Hypothetically, of course… um, I-I don't mean to, uh, rush anything, and I-I… I don't even know… was that a proposal? I-I don't have a ring."

Tifa rolled her head around her shoulders like she was thinking, "MMwe could get a ring…"

Cloud fidgeted, "W…" he paused and snapped his face to Tifa, "Wait a minute! What?!"

Tifa shrugged, not able to conceal a giant, foolish grin, "What if…I said 'yes'?"

Cloud's eyes were wide.

Tifa scooted over and kissed Cloud on the cheek. He slipped into the water and sat on the bottom of the pool. Tifa raised an eyebrow at him and he blew bubbles.

Underneath the water's surface, Cloud heaved a sigh of relief. This was going surprisingly well for a total fluke. He rose to the top and put his hands on either side of Tifa's legs, totally calm and serious. He peered up at her, "Yes?"

"Yes."

Cloud stared at Tifa for a heartbeat. He kissed her and sunk back into the water. He jumped out of the water with an "YES!" and flopped back into the pool.

"Hey! Don't kiss and run!" Tifa hopped into the pool after Cloud and dunked under the water. She grabbed a piece of his shirt and pulled him to the surface. They stared at each other for a moment, Tifa holding onto Cloud's shirt collar and Cloud grinning like an idiot. Suddenly Tifa let go, "Wait a minute. This has already happened in a later installment of our franchise."

"Huh? Oh, yeah…Let's get out of the water." Cloud was positively beaming.

Tifa pursed her lips in a barely constrained smile and nodded, "Yeah."

The pair climbed out of the pool of water and stood there dripping for a moment.

Cloud shifted. Somehow in the handful seconds it took to get out of the water, he had become unsure of himself again. After all, this was Tifa that he just accidentally proposed to. And she said yes? To him? "So…this is really happening?"

Tifa smiled shyly, the realization of what just happened must have hit her as well. "I guess so. What do we do now?"

Cloud scratched at the sore spot on the back of his head. "Um, go and pick up Marlene and Denzel?"

Tifa was silent for a moment. "…Didn't you want to talk to that mako enhanced guy?"

"What? Oh, yeah. Right. We could talk to him."

"Okay."

Tifa slowly held her hand out towards Cloud's. He shyly took her hand and the pair walked out of the church. It wasn't long before they were grinning like mad, though.

This was originally going to be longer, but I thought that Cloud proposing (accident or otherwise) should get its own chapter. As a plus, the next chapter is already half-done :) I had so much fun writing this! I was grinning almost as much as I imagined Cloud and Tifa were the whole time i was typing it up :D