Cloud's body finally relaxed with a shuddering sigh.

Panting heavy breaths, he found it a struggle to support himself now that every ounce of excited energy had drained out of him. Within seconds his arms started to buckle under his weight and he cringed in embarrassment at how truly exhausted he was.

He still couldn't believe what had just happened, or who with.

And now everything was starting to come back into focus. His heart-rate started to calm itself again as his breathing evened out, allowing him to slowly open his blue eyes to look down at her - and everything suddenly seemed surreal again.

Tifa Lockheart was laying below him, a thin gathering of sweat clinging to her warm skin. She was unmoving from exhaustion apart from the steady rising and falling of her chest. Cloud's blue eyes watched with simple fascination as she lifted her hand up to brush the loose hair out of her eyes before she slowly exhaled. Then dark eyelashes lifted, and her eyes greeted him with a dreamy smile.

Cloud couldn't help it; he leant down to kiss her again, with a tenderness that caused a contented sigh to escape her already breathless voice. Once their lips parted, Cloud could barely bring himself to lift away from her.

Blinking slowly, Tifa brought her hands up to frame her new lover's face. Her fingertips pushed tiny beads of sweat aside as she smoothed her hands over his cheeks. Still trying to compose himself, Cloud fought to keep himself supported on his palms but Tifa was still making him shudder beneath her touch. Knowing he was too tired to support himself for much longer, Tifa smiled and pulled him down to rest on her.

Cloud exhaled in relief as he laid his head down beneath her chin, blue eyes closing instantly. His arms simply flopped where they were either side of her and he thought for a minute that his pounding heart would be hurting her, until he noticed the mutual sound of heavy breathing coming from the woman laying below him. The fact caused the corners of his mouth to tug upwards. He had certainly worn her out as much as she had him.

But before he could relax into sleep, a small laugh shook Tifa's torso gently.

"…it was you wasn't it?"

Masculine eyes blinked open in tired confusion and Tifa waited for him to respond. But all she got by way of an answer was the murmur of his lips against her collarbone inaudibly for a second. She could just picture the look of puzzlement on his face. "Earlier." She went on, "Somebody was outside my door for ages, I could hear them fidgeting…but when I opened the door they had disappeared."

She giggled again and Cloud cringed. He swallowed hard and tried to muster up an excuse for his behaviour, but thinking back on it, he didn't have much in the way of a reason. "I can't believe I didn't realise it was you Cloud…why didn't you just knock and let me know?"

Cloud didn't say anything.

Tifa brought her arms loosely around his neck and kissed the top of his head. "It doesn't matter. You can tell me another time." she said through a small yawn and closed her eyes.

Although he was relieved that he didn't have to respond, Cloud felt he needed to finally start giving her the answers she wanted from him. So after a deep breath, he opened his eyes to look for something to focus on before parting his lips, "I saw something Tifa."

Tifa blinked in surprise at the unexpected sound of his voice, and her eyes softened in concern at the nature of his cryptic words. His Adam's apple nudged against her as he swallowed, and she waited for him to explain before she let herself worry about what he might mean.

"While we were on the Highwind after Holy came, when we fell I - I felt something happen to me but I don't know what it was. It felt like I'd been sent somewhere again…like when I was taken to find Sephiroth on my own that last time…"

Now Tifa was worried.

Cloud stopped speaking when he felt Tifa's arms pull him closer. Sensing her unease, he moved his right hand up to cup her shoulder in front of him and leaned over to kiss her warm skin there.

She smiled at his comfort and gently pulled back some of his hair that fell in his eyes.

Taking that as a sign to continue, Cloud coughed his rough voice clear and carried on.

"It felt like a sort of dream I guess, but I saw you."

" - What?"

"Yeah…but it…wasn't you either. I, it's hard to explain." He admitted, eyes watching the movements of his thumb as he lightly stroked Tifa's shoulder.

Tifa just stared at the clay red ceiling as she attempted to make sense of his comment. 'He was dreaming about me…' was her first thought. But after she wiped the smile off of her face, she realised that it wasn't that simple, nor good. When she thought hard about it, she tried her best to make sense of his stumbling words.

"Like when we were in the life stream you mean?"

Cloud blinked.

"Yeah, actually that is pretty much how it was."

Tifa relaxed and started to slip her fingers through his hair again.

"It was like that, but in reverse as if I were looking into your head." Cloud started to remember the imagery from the dream-like state and tried to think about how he would word everything to her. Firstly there was the strange incident with a very young Tifa who ran away after her mother's ghost - 'or whatever it was', Cloud thought. And by the time she made her next appearance, she was her usual self. Well, almost…

Cloud couldn't stop the private smile on his face when he remembered this next part. He could see the infamous black dress from here, though it didn't have Tifa inside it anymore. And this version was very real. It, along with other articles of two people's clothing were scattered all over the ground. "I can see your dress." He muttered with a smirk.

"Huh?"

Cloud blinked. "Oh, I - I didn't - "

Tifa giggled and Cloud's words died in his mouth.

"You're getting side-tracked Cloud." He heard her voice say, and it was in that husky tone that caused him to pull her in here in the first place. He swallowed again and tried to compose himself, but her words alerted him to the fact that he could feel certain parts of her body pressing against him by how he was laying.

"And you're not helping." He said back in a stern voice. But even as he said it he propped himself up on his left hand and pulled his lips back in from his boyish smile to kiss her. He murmured in approval as Tifa's arms tightened around his neck and he almost lost himself with her again.

But he knew he still had a lot to say so he reluctantly pulled away -

Or at least tried to.

"- Eefa…" his muffled voice managed to say in protest against her lips when she simply pulled him closer the more he attempted to draw back. He was desperately trying to be serious and she was making it too difficult for him. But just when he was about to say to hell with it, she parted her lips from him and looked up into his eyes.

"Sorry, you were saying?" There was only what Cloud could describe as an evil smile on her face when she said that. He stubbornly fought with the smile that was sneaking on to his own face in response and tried keeping a stern face. Tifa just grinned at him.

"I am trying to explain something Tifa, when you've finished."

"Sorry, ahem. I am listening. Promise."

Cloud watched her for a few seconds. "You sure?"

She nodded enthusiastically.

"Good." He still waited though, and after a few seconds of seeing her warm brown eyes watch him intently, he spoke once more.

"I guess what I saw was, bits of your thoughts."

His voice drifted off when he saw that she was giving him one of her beckoning looks again. Not wanting to succumb so easily once more, he decided to turn the tables on her.

"I saw certain places in your thoughts that you were trying to hide, and I guess I realised that there was something going on with you that you hadn't told me…Though I think I already had a clue, as did everyone else." There was a knowing smile on his face then that spoke volumes.

Now it was Tifa's turn to feel uncomfortable.

Cloud's blue eyes picked up on the pinkish tint that blushed onto her cheeks and he smiled into his next words. "You had it for me bad."

Tifa's mouth gaped open in shock.

After she swatted him with her hand in response, he laughed softly to himself when she covered her reddening face with her hands. "Aw come on Tifa, it's okay…" He began, but then he noticed something. "Uh, not to alarm you or anything but I don't think it's your cheeks you should be covering if you want to hide. Something uh, else tells me I'm right - " He mentioned, glancing down for a second at her naked torso.

Horrified, Tifa gasped and pulled her hands away suddenly - just in time to catch the grin on his face.

It took her all of three seconds to have him pushed over on his back, have his hands clamped down next to his head and her body on top of his. She also made sure she laid flat so her chest was successfully out of his line of sight.

Cloud on the other hand was just enjoying the attention, grinning up at her from ear to ear. The flustered angry look on her face only amused him more so.

"Well?" He prompted. But this only earned him a thump in the shoulder which he visibly winced from.

"Don't joke about that! It's not funny Cloud! This is serious, the most serious thing I've ever thought about, and now after we've just - " Cloud pressed his lips to hers to quieten her. She didn't take long to give up, and soon let go of his wrist to curl her hands over his shoulders.

Breaking their contact, Cloud looked up at her carefully. Tifa looked down at him a lot more calmly and he felt it was safe to explain himself without getting hurt.

"Tifa I wasn't joking." He said with a raw honesty. "I just don't know how to be serious about us when we talk about it. Face it, we've never even spoken about an 'us' once before tonight, so I have a point."

She looked away for a second in thought before resting her head on his chest without protest.

"See? So…I just…I'm sorry for acting like an idiot. But you can't understand how unreal this is to me. I can't even remember how this started or who started it, but I…I…" Cloud stuttered into an awkward silence.

He couldn't say it.

He had suddenly run out of whatever confidence this strange night had given him. It had served him well up to now, more than well, but just when he was going to say what he finally wanted to, he froze.

"Tifa I…" His horse voice startled him. How could one small statement be so impossible to speak? His voice was struggling.

Not wanting Tifa to ask him what was wrong, Cloud stalled by moving his arms around her. "Tifa..." His large hands smoothed over her back, holding her gaze almost painfully as he finally mustered the courage to say it. "Tifa I - "

"…love you."

Cloud stared wide-eyed in disbelief, his lips still parted from unspoken words.

He couldn't move or speak or blink. He didn't dare do another thing. No, this wasn't part of the dream. It couldn't be. The last few seconds did happen, they must have.

His heart pounded in his chest as he waited. He wanted her to make a sign that he wasn't imagining it, that she had said what he thought she just did, what he wanted her to since they met in Nibelheim.

But she was quiet. Too quiet. And it hit him like a smack in the face why she wasn't dare saying anymore.

His strong arms moved straight away to encircle her tightly and he pulled her warm body against him until he could feel her rushing heart thumping in time with his. His lips planted kisses on her hair, her forehead, her nose, anywhere he could lean his head down to reach. And he was finally rewarded by her smile, as nervous as it was.

She had thought he didn't love her in return. Even after tonight. Because in that split second when he'd gone quiet, she thought he had tensed in regret.

His reaction now however, was so sweet and tender that she slowly let go of her doubts and embraced him for all that he was, realising what they both were now. When Cloud's lips moved to her neck, her troubled thoughts vanished and she shivered in response. She giggled when his light breath tickled her skin. Wriggling in his grasp, he only continued his assault on her until she laughed. "Cloud!" She protested, but he simply carried on, her laughter fuelling his movements.

"Cloud?" Came a third voice, and the couple immediately stopped.

"Why the hell can I hear giggling in there? And from a woman - what the hell is going on?"

Tifa lifted her head up and looked down at Cloud with a look of fear that was mirrored right there in his eyes. Then they both muttered the same word in a panicked breath,

"Barrett!"

A'S N'S: Hey everyone. Well this chapter is obviously not the last one - I wouldn't be that cruel to you all. I know I have not updated/reviewed anything for a heck of a long time and that is due to me moving into University! It is one hell of an experience and I recommend it to each and every one of you. Back to the story however, I wanted to handle this story in a tasteful and careful way so I am afraid I left the all important lemon out. This was done on purpose because I don't think most of my readers would have wanted one - and I would more than likely have been shouted at if I did one. Maybe I'll do a one-shot one day of it, but who knows. I hope the majorite enjoyed this anyway, I have fawned over it for far too long! Big thanks to Hipathya for reading this for me, and Gordon for, well, being Gordon! Great artist he is everyone! And lastly, you - yes you - person reading this, you're a real gem. Thanks for stopping by x.

Xx Jessie xX