Title: Late Night Conversation
Fandom: Final Fantasy: Advent Children
Characters: Cloud, Tifa
Prompt: 023 - Lovers
Word Count: 893
Date finished: 06/03/2006
Rating: PG
Summary: Nightmares and startling revelations.
Author's Notes: The whole thing came from the first line. It took me a while to get to the rest of it - and then I went back and added the night mare. I thought this prompt would be one of the last; I think it's one of my favorites.
Disclaimer: Characters are owned by Square Enix and Sony Pictures as far as I know.

Cloud made love like he fought: with his whole heart, passionately. It was one of the many things she loved about him. He had the same intensity in his eyes when he reached for her as he did when facing a good fight, and a single-mindedness that usually distracted her before her thoughts went any farther. She loved what he did to her in the stolen hours between closing the bar and when he had to get up and go.

Tifa brushed a finger across his cheekbone, smiling as his blue eyes opened languidly. He smiled back and pulled her closer - not that she could get much closer - then nestled his head into her neck and closed his eyes again. At least, she assumed he did, because then his breathing evened out, and that, as always, put her to sleep.

A convulsion woke her; Cloud was caught in another nightmare, and she cursed Hojo low under her breath as she tried to bring him out of it. "Please, wake up," she begged gently, and wonder of wonders, his eyes opened, glowing faintly in the dark.

"Tifa?" he whispered. She could feel him trembling.

"I'm here." Her voice shook, and she tried again, wanting to sound stronger than that. "I'm right here."

He reached over and touched her face, brushing hair from her cheek, then crushed her to him, burying his face in her shoulder. She held him tightly, trying to comfort him, and finally, his trembling stopped, and he relaxed his hold on her.

"Who was it?" she asked. He had a gamut of nightmares he went through, had ever since they'd been immersed in the Lifestream and put his psyche back together.

He rolled onto his back, eyes closed. "It… Kadaj," he said finally, and looked at her again. "And Sephiroth. And…" He hesitated. "I haven't had that dream in a while. He… he makes me kill you."

She wondered who else had been in the dream. "You've had it before?"

"Kadaj is a new element," he admitted, "but other than that, it was the same." He shuddered violently. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"It's okay," she said, but didn't continue her thought. Every time she'd said something or even thought about saying something to him about their future, something went wrong. He went off to join SOLDIER. Geostigma ate up his arm - at least, maybe more. And even though he was finally here, and had begun turning down longer deliveries, she was still scared. What if there were more remnants out there? There was no guarantee that Loz and Yazoo hadn't survived the explosion or the rain.

"What is it?" he asked, and she met his eyes again and tried to smile.

"Nothing," she said softly, and this time she nestled her face in the crook of his shoulder, and fell asleep.

When she woke, the sun had brightened the angel outside the window, but there was still that same warmth at her side. His hand, strong, capable, gentle, and calloused, brushed through her hair, fingers catching slightly in the tangles.

"Morning," she mumbled, and he chuckled, shaking her.

"Morning."

"I thought you'd be gone by now."

"It's still early," he said softly. "I've been thinking."

She snickered. "Don't let Vincent know. He'd have to revise his opinion of you."

"I won't tell if you won't," he teased, then sobered again, turned on his side, and drew back from her a little. "I have been thinking," he repeated.

"What about?"

"About us," he said, and her heart gave a lurch. She struggled to keep her face passive, interested, to not show the panic those two words created in her, and nodded. "I think I want to stop with the deliveries."

"Stop?" she said, dazed. This had come out of nowhere, mirroring what she'd been thinking.

"Stop. Help out here." His gaze grew uncertain. "Unless you don't want me to?"

He'd grown so much in the two years since Meteor, and even more since waking up in the pool in the church (come back to life, she thought sometimes), but he was still fragile. She'd been there for the worst that had been done to him; she knew it all. And she still forgot about the mask he sometimes wore, of a confident young man who believed in himself.

She smiled. "I want you around, Cloud," she said softly. "I like… I love you. I like having you around…."

His fingers touched her lips, silencing her. "What?" he breathed.

She stared at him. "I love you," she repeated.

He didn't move for a moment, then gently, tenderly, kissed her. "I love you," he said, and she couldn't stop the tears that filled her eyes. She knew it; he showed it whenever he was around, but he'd never actually told her.

It took Tifa a moment to get herself back in control. "I like having you around," she repeated, "but I want you to be happy."

"I am happy with you."

There was a knock on their bedroom door. "Tifa?" Marlene called, and Cloud smiled.

"We'll be right out," Tifa called as Cloud rolled out of bed, reaching for the towel he'd left by his bedside the morning before and wrapping it around his waist.

"I'll talk to you more tonight," he said, brushed her lips with his, and escaped into the bathroom.

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