Chapter 60: The Other Boat

The months passed.

They celebrated Tifa's "second eighteenth" birthday the following May (when she was technically in her early forties). Tifa wore a summer dress with a "birthday girl" sash and a tiara; Cloud wore his birthday suit the entire day.

The day went mostly like Cloud's, only they made out most of the time. They made love twice, and had dinner in the lagoon on the floater. A net was carefully placed to block the strait to prevent any unwanted visitors like the previous time.

Tifa kept her dress on the whole time, even in the water.

Cloud and Tifa continued to live in their boat on the lagoon island for nearly two years. There was no rent to pay, and their small odd jobs produced more than enough income for food. It was no doubt a paradise, and a safe place to remain out of history's way.

Then, one day in late January or early February of 0006 (they kept track of the dates rather poorly unless one of their birthdays was coming up), Cloud, now "twenty," was relaxing in one of the lounge chairs when Tifa, now "nineteen," emerged from the cabin, in her crop tank and jean shorts.

"So Cloud," she began, as she sat down next to him, "there's something I want to talk about."

"Go ahead," he replied as he sat up.

He wondered what was on her mind. They had lived this lifestyle for a while now, without any problems, so the fact that she wanted to talk all of a sudden perplexed him.

He was completely unprepared for what she was about to say.

"I want to go sailing," Tifa announced.

This was surprising. She had been watching videos of sailing since she was in office, but she seemed to have lost that desire when Sephiroth had turned them back into children.

Now, that desire was seemingly back.

"Sailing?" he asked.

"Like on those videos we saw online back in the present," she clarified. "Where people sail across the globe, explore the most remote places in the world, and not have a care."

Cloud thought of the main concern first.

"You don't think someone will recognize us?" he asked.

"We'll stay on the boat like they do," Tifa replied.

"They stay on the boat?" he asked.

"They have to," she answered. "They'll be naked."

Cloud chuckled as he remembered those videos; how whoever was sailing would strut around their boats without a strip of clothing on, with their private parts always blurred or pixelated out.

And then, he realized what she was implying.

"So you're saying…..we'd be naked, too?"

Tifa nodded with a sly grin.

"I'd like to try that," she said.

At this point, Cloud and Tifa's relationship had been fully restored, and they respectively had the bodies of a twenty- and nineteen-year-old, so some naked time together would definitely be reasonable, if not overdue.

"I'd like to try that, too," he said with a grin matching Tifa's.

So, the next morning, Cloud started the boat and pulled it out of the lagoon island they had lived at for the last year and a half. They sailed south, past the islands they had gotten to know over the last two years.

They soon hit the open ocean.

And then, the islands were gone from sight.

After another hour, Tifa stopped the boat.

She turned to Cloud.

"Well," she said. "We're here."

Hand in hand, they stepped out onto the deck.

Tifa gazed at the open ocean, which extended as far as the eye could see in every direction.

Then she smiled, and said the inevitable.

"Let's take our clothes off."

Cloud duly pulled his shirt off. He then took off his pants, followed by his boxers.

Tifa slipped off her shirt. She then unhooked her bra and slid it off, freeing her breasts. Finally unzipped her jeans, and slid them off with her panties in one yank.

Tifa then walked to the front of the boat, gazing into the endless ocean.

Cloud joined her, placing his fingertips on the small of her bare back.

"How does it feel?" he asked.

"Amazing!" Tifa replied with a smile. "I think this is the freest I've ever felt!"

It was true; she had never felt freer. True, they had spend most of their honeymoon naked on an island, but this was different. That island was small and limited. The ocean was vast and endless. And the risk of getting caught somehow…thrilled her.

Tifa then turned to Cloud.

"Can you carry me on your shoulders?" she requested.

"Of course," he agreed.

Cloud bent down.

Tifa climbed onto Cloud's shoulders.

He stood up straight, lifting her up into the air.

She felt a strange power inside her soul.

She felt above everything else, both literally and figuratively.

It was an amazing feeling she was having.

"I'm queen of the ocean," she whispered to herself.

She had discarded more than just her clothes.

She had discarded all rules.

She had discarded all boundaries.

She had discarded everything that had remotely confined her.

"I'm queen of the ocean!" Tifa shouted at the top of her lungs as she raised her arms triumphantly into the air. "Woot!"

She stayed on Cloud's shoulders for a few minutes before he put her down again.

"Thank you," she said to him as she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you for doing this with me."

"No problem," he replied.

"Give me a hug," she requested before wrapping her arms around him.

Cloud hugged her back tightly.

"I love you so much," she said. "Especially after following me on all my crazy endeavors."

"I'm happy to do it," Cloud said. "Especially naked."

Tifa laughed and pressed her lips against his.

"Where to, your majesty?" Cloud inquired.

"How about south?" Tifa requested.

"South it is!" he agreed.

He then went to the controls and began to pilot the boat south.

Tifa approached him from behind and lovingly wrapped her arms around him, planting kisses on his cheeks before resting her head on his shoulder.

"No clothes again until further notice," she requested. "Agreed?"

"Agreed," he replied.

And so, south and south they continued, until at last they could continue no longer.

February 6, 0006

Thunder and lightning crackled loudly as the boat approached the extremity of her southern travels. Although the skies were still dry where she was, just a few years ahead was raining perpetually.

Cloud and Tifa, still naked, stood on the deck staring into the deadly abyss, hand-in-hand. Both had goosebumps all over their bodies; whether it was from the wind or fear was not known.

"Look, Tifa," Cloud began. "The Storm Belt!"

They stared deep into the Belt. All they could see was black clouds, rain, hail, lightning, and a few waterspouts in the far distance.

Tifa squeezed Cloud's hand.

"They say no boat can survive this," she said ominously.

"Yet Zack made it across," Cloud pointed out.

"In a plastic sphere," Tifa pointed out. "We'd be capsized for sure."

She then tilted her head upward.

"You look like you're thinking," Cloud observed.

Tifa nodded.

"Eros Nova must be somewhere at this latitude," she said. "If we follow the Storm Belt, we're bound to run into it sooner or later."

"Which way?" Cloud asked.

"Either way," Tifa replied. "The Planet's round."

And then, she began to feel another feeling. Whether it was the thrill of being so close to the Storm Belt, or the intimacy of being completely naked with the man she love, or a combination of both, was ambiguous.

Regardless of the reason, she turned around to face Cloud, placing her hands on the bars.

Cloud soon realized that Tifa was giving him a full frontal view of her naked body on purpose, and quickly realized what that meant.

"I want sex," she announced.

"That was blunt," Cloud replied. "But in front of the Storm Belt?"

"Who's ever done that before?" Tifa replied with a sly grin. "Maybe we'll be the first!"

"Maybe," he said as he approached her, placing his hand on her bare breast.

"See what having a girl as your best friend can do for you?" Tifa laughed before kissing him lovingly on the mouth.

February 8, 0006

After three days of sailing east, Tifa looked through her binoculars, and spotted land off in the distance.

Sure enough, it was Eros Nova. And, as they were coming in from the west, Tifa knew what side they were spotting.

"This is the nude side," she pointed out. "We should reach the prude side by noon."

Despite the fact that they were naked, Cloud was well aware Tifa did not want to be seen that way, and was quite certain she did not want anyone seeing Cloud that way, either. So he took the hint and safely piloted the boat to the prude side.

At noon, they dropped anchor. After that, Cloud noticed they were out of food, so he volunteered to get some.

He put on some clothes and went into the nearest town. This one seemed to be a resort area, with an outdoor mall featuring a bunch of shops as restaurants. There was a market at the end of one of them, so he quickly took advantage of it. He then remembered what the drinking age was on Eros Nova, and took advantage of that as well.

On the way back to the boat, he came across a large crowd.

And in the crowd, he spotted a familiar face with long, silver hair.

Sephiroth?! he thought to himself.

Cloud blinked, and shook his head.

He inspected the crowd once again.

Sephiroth was nowhere to be seen.

Figuring his mind was playing tricks on him, Cloud continued on his way.

Further on, he spotted Rufus, who was, of course, vice president at the time. He was consoling a red-haired woman who was wailing hysterically.

He swore he had seen that woman in 0011.

But where?

Realizing that it would be wiser not to be seen, Cloud hurried through the crowd and back to the boat, determined not to tell his waiting wife what he had seen; she did not need the extra drama.

He made it to the boat and entered the cabin, whereupon he saw Tifa sitting naked on one of the seats.

"That was fast," she said with a smile.

Cloud nodded, and quickly decided to change the subject to forget about what he had seen.

"You having a good time?" he asked.

"You bet I'm having a good time!" she replied happily.

"A really good time?" he asked as he began to put the food away.

"An amazing time!" she replied enthusiastically. "Come over here and kiss me!"

Cloud came over and kissed her before finishing with the food.

As soon as the food was put away, Cloud slipped out of his clothes, and smiled at his wife.

"There," he said, "we're naked again."

"You're naked again," Tifa corrected. "I haven't stopped being naked for days!"

She then noticed what he had placed on the table.

"You got beer?!" Tifa asked. "I'm only eighteen!"

"We're really a lot older," he reminded her. "And Eros Nova's drinking age is eighteen. Technically, you're not breaking the law."

"You got me there," she admitted.

The most surprising even occurred at three that afternoon.

Cloud and Tifa were sitting on the seats where the cabin met the deck, naked (except for their shades), and drinking beer out of plastic solo cups.

They were, once again, speculating what was in the locker, what the combination was, and the previous boat owner.

"Maybe it's a dead body," Tifa suggested as she took a sip of her beer.

"How could a dead body fit in there?" Cloud asked.

"If he was hacked," Tifa pointed out. "Or she."

Cloud was silent. There was something else on his mind as well.

"We're still not closer to finding out what Sephiroth is up to," Cloud said.

"I doubt we'll find anything until we get closer to the present time," Tifa pointed out as she turned her head north and looked out into the ocean. "Which is still over five years away."

And, ironically, Tifa would be proven wrong seconds later.

All of a sudden, the monitor began to beep from in the cabin. That meant only one thing; that another boat was approaching.

"Hide!" they both said in unison as they pulled down the covers.

Once they knew nobody could see their naked bodies, Tifa ran over to the monitor on the table to check.

"What's going on?" asked Cloud, though the answer was obvious to him.

"Looks like we have a visitor," Tifa replied as she checked the monitor. "Looks like another boat, about this size."

"Really," Cloud observed. "That's not usual."

Tifa continued to scan the monitor.

"Actually, exactly this size," she added. "And the exact same weight and dimensions."

"That's weird," Cloud said.

Then, Tifa ran over to the window blinds.

She had become suspicious of something.

She peeked through the blinds.

"It's our boat!" Tifa exclaimed as she turned around to face Cloud.

"Our boat?!" Cloud replied. "We're detecting ourselves?!"

"I mean, our boat in 0006, five years before we bought it," she clarified.

"I figured we'd encounter this boat's past self sooner or later," Cloud said. "I wonder who owns it. Or owned it, or whatever."

"This is amazing!" she said with a smile.

"Let's find out who does own it," Cloud suggested. "Maybe they'll know about the locker."

And then, Cloud and Tifa heard what they would never forget.

"I'm never coming back to this island ever!" called a voice from the other boat.

Tifa gasped and placed her hands over her mouth.

Cloud did the same.

Both of them recognized the voice immediately.

"That sounded like Aerith!" Tifa whispered.

She immediately peeked out the blinds again.

Sure enough, a familiar girl with brown hair, green eyes, and wearing a pink dress and red jacket was standing out on the deck.

"It is!" Tifa exclaimed. "It's her!"

"Well," Cloud said, "I suppose we can't just go out and say hello."

"One," Tifa replied, "we're naked. Two, we can't let her know we exist yet!"

"We'll stay low," Cloud assured Tifa as he stood next to her as she continued to peek out the blinds. "She'll formally meet us in a little more than a year."

"I don't remember her saying anything about owning a boat," Tifa said.

"Neither do I," Cloud added.

After an hour, Aerith and the 0006 boat were gone.

And then, Cloud remembered.

"I don't remember her saying anything about a boat," he repeated. "But I do remember her saying she went to Eros Nova for her twenty-first birthday. Which, I think, was a day or two ago."

"Her birthday!" Tifa suddenly exclaimed as she sprang out of her seat.

"Yeah," Cloud said.

"I just thought of something," Tifa announced as she ran to the locker as bent down.

"Something?" he asked.

"Yeah, something," she repeated. "Don't stare at my butthole."

"Don't stare at your butthole?" Cloud asked.

Ignoring him, Tifa pressed the buttons on the locker.

"02-07-85," she mumbled.

The safe beeped, and slowly opened.

"I knew it!" she said triumphantly. "Aerith's birthday is the combination!"

Cloud immediately joined his wife.

"What's in there?" he asked.

Tifa slowly reached in.

Moments later, she was pulling out what appeared to be a book.

"That's it?" he asked.

"I think so," she answered as she stood up and dusted off the book.

Her dusting revealed three letters on the cover: "A.L.G."

"Aerith Lee Gainsborough," Tifa deduced. "It's a journal. The whole time, it was a journal."

Tifa sat down, and put her face in her hands.

She was so disappointed she wanted to cry.

"I can't believe I thought there would be something useful in there," she groaned.

Cloud sat down next to her, and placed his arm around her for support.

"Maybe it is," he suggested.

"Fat chance," she muttered.

"Remember what Tobin's journal did for you?" Cloud reminded her.

"Aerith was certainly not Tobin," Tifa dismissed.

"That may be," Cloud said, "but there's a lot about her we still don't know."

He then saw that Tifa had the journal on her lap.

"There's only one way to be sure," he continued as he reached down and opened the journal to the first page.

Both Cloud and Tifa gasped at the first thing they saw written.

"Please read before August 12, 0011 if you want to save Eros Nova."

Tifa immediately turned her head toward Cloud.

"This is the day before Cid and Shera's wedding," she realized aloud.

"Something's going to happen there," Cloud said. "And they'll be on the island at that time. They won't just arrive on their wedding day. They'll need to pick a different venue."

"There's no way we'll talk them out of it," Tifa dismissed. "They'll be there on the twelfth."

Cloud sighed.

"Cid and Shera's lives are in danger," Tifa said. "Not to mention all our friends."

"We don't know that for sure," Cloud said. "Maybe whatever was supposed to happen was prevented."

"But there's only one way to find out," Tifa said.

With that, she turned the journal to the next page, and began reading. She read silently for some time.

"What's happening?" Cloud asked.

"Looks like Tseng's making an unwelcome visit to her house," Tifa replied.

With that, she continued to read silently.

"You could use some glasses," Cloud suddenly said.

"I have perfect twenty-twenty vision!" she laughed. "Why would I need glasses?"

"It would look sexy," Cloud replied.

"A naked chick with glasses is sexy to you?" Tifa asked with a smile.

With that, she resumed reading.