Hi everyone! I bet this is a surprise. Well I've been in an AxelxTifa mood and I was pondering if I should just put my random drabbles on my LJ but then again I wanted everyone to read it too so I ended up putting it here anyway. So I guess this will be my place for my AxelxTifa one-shots and drabbles, long and short as time goes on. Hope you enjoy.

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Drabble #1 : Let me Love You

Tears trailed down the smooth porcelain skin of her cheeks as she ran through the busy streets of Edge. Running past people, children amidst in their laughter and the world running around her, her world was slowly coming to a halt.

Her head shook as she replayed the most recent events in her head. It was the same as it had always been. Cloud was always out somewhere, somewhere she was never sure of only to come back in silence. He seemed to grow closer to the children as time drew on but for some reason, he was always so far from her.

He was a man of few words and a man of few expressions. He was always hard to read, always hard to keep in her grasp. It would only take so long before her patience had finally run too thin and broke. Her will that she had kept strong for so many years had finally withered away in this one night.

She had always looked out for him. She had always fought for him without a flicker of doubt in her eyes. She had always loved him without a flicker of failure in her heart. No matter what she vowed she would be by his side for the rest of her life no matter what it took. Now she wondered what it was all for.

She couldn't dream of having a family of her own or a loving husband who'd walk in through the door and see only her. She knew very well and she had known for years already that there was someone else he saw. There was someone else that occupied his mind and shared his heart with her.

As much as she had come to terms with herself that this was okay and that person had passed on to another life anyway, now she was beginning to think selfishly. She began to wish that it were only her that his eyes would set on. She began to wish he would look at her as she had done to him all these years. Yet she knew that would be impossible to expect from a man such as her childhood friend. He'd always protect her, always hold a place in his heart for her in his own way, but he'd never be the dream she'd fantasize about only underneath her eyelids.

Him coming home at all and a subtle smile at the end of the day was the closest she'd ever get to a family. She told herself that she would be satisfied with that. She told herself that if she tried hard enough that her hopes would someday be fulfilled.

What she told herself were lies. Now she knew that. It was through the darkness that her eyes had finally opened and seen the truth. Who knew the truth hid in her own darkness all this time and she just chose to ignore it. She really shouldn't have…she shouldn't have.

It was through the realm of darkness that she heard it. When she was accompanying Cloud back from Radiant Garden back to their world, she heard it encompassing through her mind as she fled through the veil of darkness. It was a voice, yearning, reaching out from the depths of loss.

"Who are you?"

"Nobody…"

"What do you want from me? Why am I the only one that can hear you?"

"I just wanna come with you, to thrive from the loss in your heart and share your pain"

"Why would you want to do that? You don't even know me!"

"I know you more than you know yourself…"

The voice intrigued her curiosity. Even though it was a voice she had never heard before, somehow she had found comfort in its soothing tone. She sensed it. The loss in its voice matching the loss in her own, the empty gap that would never be full again.

As she saw herself coming to the exit of the realm the voice called out to her, more eager than before.

"Please…take me with you. I can't exist if you leave"

She wasn't sure what he meant by that. She wasn't sure if the voice in her head was a figment of her lonely imagination. She just knew that if she left this person behind, she'd never forgive herself. He seemed…so much like her and yet she had never met him.

"Alright, come with me"

"Thanks. I owe ya one. I'll see you soon okay?"

"See me? When? How?"

"In your darkness, that's where I'll be…"

That day was two months ago. The voice she had heard had slowly transformed into an image of a young looking man whenever her heart throbbed with pain. Whenever her soul swam in darkness, his form grew clearer and clearer.

He was there when she slept alone at night. He was there watching over her shoulder when she'd watch Cloud, pitying all that she couldn't have. He'd be there, residing in the twilight of her heart.

Tifa yelled into the night. Calling out for his voice. She could no longer hear it. It was gone from her head but somehow she knew he was still there. He had to be.

"Axel! Where are you?"

The brunette woman fell to her knees in the outskirts of the city. Cloud wouldn't notice she was gone or at least it would take him a while before he set out to look for her. She didn't care. She wanted to be selfish. She wanted his all or nothing. If she couldn't, if that wasn't possible, she didn't know what purpose she had to go on.

The children at the orphanage were her only comfort. They had loved her the most in her darkest days. She knew she would always be loved as a mother but was it so wrong to ask for another kind of love? Was it so wrong to want to belong to someone?

Lips quivering, her fingertips brushed aside the last remaining tears from her face. She stared out into the night as she sat on a cliff. Letting the breeze sift through her hair, she closed her eyes, waiting, yearning as he had done for her that day in the realm.

He had come back from the emptiness of an eternal non-existence, re-incarnated through her darkness. At least that was what he had told her. Somehow he was reborn, for some reason it was because of her. There used to be more like him and now he was the only one left, wandering in his loss. No one like him, no one to talk to, only memories of a past life to dwell on. All that he knew was now gone. He was left behind.

It was her that rescued him from his fate. It was her own emptiness that revived him. He would exist through her and with that, he was satisfied and wouldn't ask for more. But as usual, Tifa couldn't help but ask for more, to be selfish.

Her head settled in the cradle of her arms. She breathed steadily as she dowsed herself in her pain. Such a painful love this was, and it only seemed that she was leading herself face first into another one. Another love that could never be. What sane person could love something that only started in her head? Was it even really there?

Just as she was pondering this, it seemed that he had come to answer her question. He felt even more real each time. His presence appeared next to her body as he pulled her into his embrace.

She lifted her head to recognize the fiery locks standing around his mischievous smile as he observed her. Emerald eyes locked onto hers, his hand rose to the strands of hair falling over her eyes.

She sighed at the warmth and tingle of his touch on her. Leaning into him, she allowed herself to seep into this dream, this voice, this whatever this was. It didn't matter anymore.

"You called?"

She nodded without a word and he knew. He knew all that was in her heart although he had none of his own. He knew all that hid inside her, eating her whole. Only he could put it at ease. Only he could make her forget.

Her fingers clung onto the black material on his chest so needing and he allowed her. He arms held her close as he felt the darkness in her, the struggle between the light and darkness inside her. He kept her at bay.

Finally after a long pause Tifa could no longer control herself. Warm tears began to soak into his chest and he only held her tighter. His husky voice in her hair calmed her.

"Let me hold you when you're in your darkest hours Tifa"

She nodded.

"I wanna be your strength when you feel that you can't go on"

She looked up at him. This being without a heart, without emotions and yet he showed more than Cloud ever did.

"Why?"

"I know you feel empty. I've experienced that too and just like you, I want that emptiness gone"

He too had lost someone he cared for in his past, possibly more than one person. He too had goals and dreams he wanted to fulfill. He too desired purpose and was given none…until now.

Axel pressed his forehead on hers. He wished he could feel. He wished his heart would throb like it should if he had one. He wished he could share her every pain and her every joy. He knew that was impossible so for now he'd offer only what he could give, and that was his very existence to her.

"Tifa I- I just-"

She saw it in his trembling eyes. He wanted to love her. He wanted to give her what no one else would and he couldn't. This drove him insane. Little did he know that she was already satisfied with him and all he was giving to her. Nothing meant more than all that he would give to her.

She grabbed his face with her hands. All doubt aside she finally came to terms with herself that this was okay. She was loving a being that couldn't love her back but he wanted to. He'd give his very existence to see that she'd never shed another tear and that was why it was okay. Even if this was wrong in the eyes of others or all in her head, this love wasn't wrong.

She knew what he wanted to say but knew it wouldn't have any emotion behind it. So she said it for him.

"Let me be the one to love you since you can't love me in return"

Axel's eyes widened in surprise. She had accepted him. She knew he couldn't love her but she still wanted to be beside him for all that he could give her. A smile stretched along his face.

A low devious chuckle came from his lips as he looked down at the woman in his arms. She smiled at him in return. She knew what was coming, one of his smart lines. One of these would usually earn him a playful punch in the arm but it was things like this that made her love him.

"Let it burn babe," his smile was wide and her finger rose to trace along the black ink below his eyes.

With that he leaned in and pressed his lips on hers and she received it contently. Nothing could feel more real than this. This was more real than anything else in her life. Lips brushing against one another's lovingly and carefully, their embraces wrapped tighter.

For the rest of the night they stood together, enjoying each other's company. Tomorrow she'd go and talk to Cloud. She wasn't sure how he'd react to her falling in love with someone else but something told her that he would eventually accept it. If he really cared for her, he would allow her to have her own happiness without so much dependence in him. Then maybe the children would warm up to him. There was no doubt that the children's eyes would light up with joy at the Pyro's jovial personality and fire tricks. Somehow she knew that everything was going to be okay now.

"Axel?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks…for coming with me"

"No… thank you Tifa. You're the one that found me and because of that, I have purpose"

"So do I Axel…so do I"

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Hope it was okay for something I just typed up today. I didn't really look through it for mistakes for please forgive me. My muse has been kicking me hard lately and its like I have so much I wanna write but I can't write it all. Hope that quenched your AxelxTifa thirst a little. It did mines although a bit fluffy and angsty.