Note: Cross-posted to AO3. That gets updated first, then here eventually. Anything explicit that fills in the gaps in this story will be posted ONLY over there since it can easily be tagged that way. Thanks for sticking around this long :D Hope you're enjoying it.

Life With You

Chapter 9

Cloud sipped his drink as he walked side by side with Tifa. He was happy to be there, especially after their late arrival the night before. They'd both forgotten to get train tickets ahead of time and were stuck waiting in Costa del Sol for hours to get onto a train to the Gold Saucer. At least they had a steady supply of drinks and decent food to kill some time.

"Can we go play some games?" Tifa smiled hopefully. They'd just spent the last couple of hours in Chocobo Square gambling on some of the races and just talking. She was already enjoying every second of her time with the man.

"I thought that's where we were going next?" He chuckled softly. There was something about seeing Tifa this excited that made his heart swell. He reached down to take her hand and laced their fingers together as he started to lead the way towards Wonderment Square. "I'm curious what else they added since the last time we were here."

Tifa let go of his hand and instead, slid her arm through his as they walked. "I'm not racing you in G-Bike again." She grimaced.

"Oh, why not?"

"I swear you cheated last time!" She narrowed her eyes as they stepped into the transporter.

Cloud held up his hands as he quickly shook his head. "I don't cheat. I didn't cheat. And you're definitely racing me again." He wasn't going to let it go until she gave in.

"Mmhm…" Tifa pursed her lips. She stepped off the path when they got to the other side and saw it had expanded a little bit from the last time they were there. "They have snowboarding now?" She pointed towards the section. "And basketball. Come on!" She grabbed his hand to lead him towards that first.

"Oh no," Cloud groaned softly. He was in shape, yes, but he was far from good at any kind of sport besides running.

"Oh yes." Tifa grinned. She reached into her pocket for some Gil to feed into the machines. "Put your drink down and play with me." When she didn't get an immediate response, she looked over at him and saw the look on his face. "That is not what I meant, you pervert. We can play like that later."

Cloud lifted his eyebrows as he continued to stare at her. He finally laughed when she smacked his chest. "Okay, fine I'll play." He leaned down to put his drink on the floor beside the machine and watched as Tifa set it up so they could play against each other. He was confident enough with himself to be okay getting his ass kicked.

And that was exactly what Tifa did.

Cloud cringed a bit when he saw the score. Tifa 110, him 50. "Okay, that was embarrassing." He heard some kids giggle behind them and turned to look back at them. All he could do was laugh. "If a cute girl asks you to play a game, play a game with them." He told them as he leaned down to grab his tokens for his poor performance. He also grabbed his drink off of the floor.

Tifa tilted her head a bit as she watched his interaction with the kids that had been watching them. She didn't see him with kids outside of Marlene, and that was rare that they got to visit with them. "Why'd you tell them that?"

"It's good advice. Especially if it's a girl you like a lot." He winked. "But I'm not going to let you forget about the bike race though." Cloud heard her groan. "Nope, you're not getting out of it. I played basketball with you, now you get on the bikes with me."

"Fine." She caved. She didn't mind. It was only fair and she knew he wouldn't rub it in her face. Tifa leaned into him a bit as they made their way across the arcade, thankfully two of the bikes were open and available to them.

Cloud took a second to finish his drink and walked over to a trash can to toss it out before he joined her and got onto one of the bikes. He waited for her to get on the other one before he touched the screen, changing the mode to a race for them and he chuckled when a kid on the other side of Tifa tried to join their race. He smiled and just accepted it. It wouldn't hurt anything. "Hope you're ready to lose."

Tifa rolled her eyes at his antics and leaned forward to grab the handlebars. "I'm going to crash." She heard the little boy giggle on her other side. "Maybe you can beat him for me."

"I'll try!"

Tifa looked over at him then back at her screen as Cloud started the game for them. She felt herself go into focus mode as she tried her best to keep up with her boyfriend. The kid had fallen back behind them unfortunately. Tifa was able to keep pace with Cloud for the first lap, but when she came to a turn, she didn't lean far enough and it caused her bike to slide off the track. "Dammit."

Cloud laughed from his spot and decided to pull up his speed a little bit to let her catch back up. "It's no fun when you're so far behind me, Tee." He glanced off the screen and over at her for just a moment and that was all it took for him to race off the track and into a wall.

"Ha!" Tifa took over the lead from him as his bike re-spawned on the track. "Stop looking at me." She laughed loudly.

The third and final lap hit them soon and Tifa felt her heart racing. She had a chance to beat Cloud in the bike game. She was still ahead of him but she took a turn too wide and saw his virtual bike zip by her on the inside. "Asshole!" She watched as he crossed the finish line first, then her, then the kid on her other side finally crossed a few seconds later.

Cloud sat upright on the bike and looked over at them. "I wasn't trying to give you the race," he laughed softly. His eyes darted to the other side of Tifa to see the little kid was excited to just have someone to race with.

Maybe someday they'd have their own kid that he could play games with. He cleared his throat when he caught Tifa looking at him. He slid off the bike and leaned down to grab his token ticket from the machine.

"What's on your mind?" She asked. Tifa accepted his hand to help her off the bike.

"Just… mind wandering a little bit." He looked over at the kid when he heard his excited voice. The kid looked like he was talking to a parent. Cloud smiled when he pointed towards them. "I think he's happy he got to race someone."

"Yeah! Nobody would race with me."

The woman that was with him looked over at them and smiled thankfully. "He's been trying to join races for an hour and people kept yelling at him to get out."

Cloud frowned a little bit. "Do you want to race again?"

Tifa was taken aback by his question to the kid. Cloud was always good with Marlene, but there was something about seeing him with another kid that sent her emotions into a spiral. Could they have this someday?

"Can I, mom?" The kid asked the woman with them and jumped up and down when she agreed.

"Tifa, you joining us?" He slid onto the bike again and fed some Gil into it before he set up a race.

Tifa shook her head. "Not this time." She stepped off the platform and kept her eyes on her boyfriend. She saw flashes in her head of what they could have. She didn't know if they'd ever have it, but if Cloud was like this with a stranger, how would he be with a child of their own?

She blushed at her own thoughts. She was almost certain it wouldn't happen though. His Mako infusions from the military, all of the Mako exposure they dealt with during their journey… They were never cautious when they slept together and nothing had happened yet. She would just have to dream.

Tifa was pulled from her thoughts when the kid suddenly screamed. It was an excited scream. Did Cloud tank the race on purpose? She stepped back up onto the platform and looked at her boyfriend's screen. '2nd' flashed there. He did. He tanked so the kid could win.

Cloud looked over at the boy who was over the moon excited for winning then looked over at Tifa. "What?"

"You let him win?" She whispered to him as he got off the bike.

"No," he winked, speaking loud enough for the boy to hear him. "He won fair and square."

Tifa smiled lovingly up at him and shook her head briefly. He never ceased to amaze her sometimes. "Have fun," she waved over at the kid then focused on Cloud again. "I knew you had a heart in there."

Cloud let out a laugh and took Tifa's hand to lead her off the platform. "I don't know… it was nice seeing him so excited for something so simple."

"I think you made his whole night." Tifa glanced back and saw the kid was still very animated as he talked to his mom.

"I think I did too." Cloud slid his arm around the woman's shoulder to pull her in for a gentle kiss. "Where to next?"

Tifa looked around before she decided to lead them towards the Queen's Blood. She always enjoyed the card game and she knew that Cloud did too. They ended up spending most of the rest of their evening there playing the game against each other and against others.

After they checked out the new games as well, Tifa was exhausted. "That snowboarding game… my legs feel like jelly." She laughed, leaning into him as they went to the shop to look for something to exchange their tokens for.

"I mean, I'll help with that when we get back to the room." Cloud laughed loudly when Tifa's hand connected with his arm. "I don't hear you complaining about the idea."

"Because I'm not." Tifa blushed. She tried not to focus on that. Right now, she wanted to look through the prize options. "Cloud, look!" She pointed up at the large Moogles on one of the higher shelves.

"A Moogle?"

"Yes, a Moogle. Can we get it?" Tifa looked at the tickets she had and knew that Cloud had some too that he could put with it.

Seeing Tifa turn into a big kid while they were there all day brought a smile to his face. He'd been doing that a lot since they arrived at the Gold Saucer. "Okay, fine. I think I have enough to put with it." He dug into his pocket to get his own tickets out and stepped closer to Tifa to see if they had enough combined.

Tifa counted through everything before she hopped with excitement. "And we'll have a few left over too." She turned her attention to one of the shop workers that approached them. "I want one of the Moogles, with the blue headband on it." She pointed up at it.

"Of course." The worker took their tickets to run them through the machine and gave Tifa back the remainder.

"Why the blue one?" Cloud had to ask.

Tifa gave him a look, telling him that he should already know. "Because he'll match your eyes."

Cloud sucked in a little breath and tried to push down his racing heart. That was the same reason he chose the ring he did for Tifa. It matched her eyes. He watched as the worker climbed up a small ladder to get the Moogle down for them. "Do you want to find some place to eat?"

Tifa wrapped her arms around the Moogle and looked back over at him. "Yeah. Please. I'm hungry."

"Mommy, I want that one!" A little girl's voice nearby drew their attention.

"You don't have enough for it."

Tifa looked at Cloud then down at the tickets they had left. "We don't need these anymore, do we?" When Cloud shook his head, she handed him the Moogle and went over towards where the little girl was. "Hey, honey. How many more tickets do you need?"

Cloud kept his eyes on Tifa. He could hear their interaction. Seeing her with the younger child gave him hope for their future. He thought about it earlier, how he'd love to have a child of their own. Seeing and hearing how gentle Tifa was… she'd make a wonderful mother.

"Really? I can have it?" The little girl looked at the tickets that Tifa gave her then back at her mom. "Mommy, I can get the chocobo now!"

Tifa smiled as she stood back up. That was when she caught Cloud's eyes on her. She saw a look on his face that she'd never seen before and she wondered if he was thinking the same thing that she was. She had flashed earlier about having a child of their own. She had no doubt in her mind that he'd make a great dad.

"You ready to go?" She asked softly.

"Yeah," he spoke softly. Cloud kept one arm around the Moogle and wrapped his other around his girlfriend. "You know… you'd make a great mom."

Tifa sucked in a small breath. He was thinking the same thing she was. "You think so?"

"Yeah, I do." He led them out of Wonderment Square and towards the transporter to get back to the main area of Gold Saucer.

Tifa stayed quiet until they were at the other side. She leaned back into his side as they walked and finally spoke up. "You'd make a great dad too, you know?" She heard Cloud scoff softly. "I mean it. You're so good with Marlene whenever you're around her. And I saw you tank that race earlier just to make that little boy smile.

"Yeah… busted." He paused to look around for a moment to figure out where they could go. He saw the food stalls around, but he wanted some place they could sit down. Once he caught a whiff of something that smelled delicious, he followed where it was coming from. "I liked seeing him so excited."

"And that's why you'd make a good dad. You put your own pride aside just to let him win… Oh, what is that smell?" Tifa finally caught a whiff of it too.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out."

I appreciate you making it this far! Feel free to drop a review. I'm open to random cutesy ideas to write that happen between them. Feel free to leave a comment. I love reading what people think. I know it's far from perfect, I'm bad at proofreading my own stuff.

If you want anything explicit, head over to the FF7 fandom on AO3. Name's the same (Jencey) over there. I'm keeping all explicit stuff over there and just hints of anything in the main story.