Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Wash Away ❯ Wash Away ( Chapter 1 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Tifa and Cloud have some unfinished business, while Vincent and Yuffie need to come to terms with the fact that they have a real relationship to work on.

Non Anime: Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Angst | Type: One Shot | Uploaded On: 06.09.2007 | Pages: 5 | Words: 10.7K | Visits: 859 | Status: Completed

Hello! This is my very first Final Fantasy VII fic, though I've been writing fanfics for a few years now. I really hope that this fic is accurate regarding the details of the game, and the relationship between Cloud and Tifa. I'd like to point out that this starts as a Cloud/Tifa and ends as a Yuffie/Vincent fic. I do hope that you like it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy VII or any of the characters used in this piece of fanfiction. They are legal property of SquareEnix and I am making no money off of them.

Warning: This fic includes two scenes of adult situations!

……………………̷ 0;…………

Wash Away

……………………̷ 0;…………

The children were sleeping peacefully, finally. They hadn't wanted to go to bed for fear that Cloud would be gone once again come the morning. But he wouldn't leave them anymore. At least that was what she was trying to convince herself of. She had seen it in his eyes when he had turned to look at her after he had appeared in the water of the church. Even though she had seen a change in him, there was something that told her to be cautious.

Her heart had been let down more than once; her faith in Cloud was no longer as strong as it had been when she had been a young girl. As time had gone by, and as he had drawn away from her, her conviction in him had been dying by slow degrees. If he left again she would be disappointed, but she would resign herself to it because some part of her would've known that sooner or later he would leave. She didn't want to feel that way, but she couldn't help it. She hadn't spoken to him for a while now.

They had all shared a quiet dinner after the bar had closed and then Cloud had retreated to his room after Denzel and Marlene had gone to sleep. He had been in there for an hour now and Tifa wondered if he was already asleep. She let out a deep sigh and walked out onto the balcony connected to the biggest window of her room. It overlooked a long line of homes that had been rebuilt along with theirs, and tonight everything was quiet. The stigma was gone and the children were healthy, though there was still the problem of finding them homes.

The sky was dark and cloudy and Tifa knew that it would rain shortly; the temperature had dropped a few degrees. Her mind wandered back to the day's events. The thought that she could've lost Cloud today brought tears to her eyes and she hated crying. The last time she had cried had been when her mother had died and she hadn't done it since. Crying made her feel weak. It made her feel defenseless, and that was something that she didn't need right now. Not when she needed to be strong the most.

She lost track of how long she stood there out in the cold, her mind a blank and her eyes staring into the distance. She felt his presence behind her before he said anything or made a sound. Her training had sharpened her senses in order to survive during her AVALNCHE missions and she was still as in focus as ever. Training like that wasn't forgotten overnight. His scent was clean and masculine and he was staring at the back of her head, which was a bit hard to miss or ignore.

After a long moment of silence, he stepped over and stood beside her. He smelled like soap and her lavender shampoo, but oddly enough, the scent was not at all girly on him. “Hey,” he murmured.

Tifa gave him a sidelong glance and smiled slightly. “I thought you were sleeping already.”

Cloud looked out and into the distance. He didn't know what to say to Tifa. Before the whole thing with the remnants, he had left her and the children for the solitude he had resigned himself to live in. She had been trying to make an effort to have a normal family with him, but he had shot her down. That was when he had believed that he wouldn't survive the stigma. While he had been on the road, the messages she had left on his phone had gone from being concerned to short and neutral and he had known that he had hurt her by leaving and being so distant.

There were so many things he needed to apologize for but didn't know where to start. Might as well apologize for everything. “I'm sorry,” he murmured suddenly.

She looked at him with those observant eyes of her. “For what?”

He was quiet for a few seconds. “For what I put you through. I had resigned myself to my fate and I didn't want to drag you and the kids down with me. That's why I left.”

“And you thought that dying alone would've made things easier for you? If you had died,” she choked on the word. “How do you think we would've felt? How do you think you would've felt without us? Why is it so hard for you to just include us in your life?”

There it was. The dreaded question that he had never been able to answer, even to himself. Why hadn't be been able to just be a father to Marlene and Denzel? Why hadn't he been able to be a good companion for Tifa? Because he was an idiot. That was why.

“I don't know,” he admitted, feeling the first drops of water as they landed on the tip of his nose. “I guess that I've been alone most of my life, it's hard to include other people…… I want to change, Tifa. I want to be there for you and the kids. I just… I just need you to teach me how.”

The sprinkling became heavier rain drops and Tifa was thankful that the rain would cover her tears, for they were leaking from her eyes now. “Did you let go of the guilt over Aerith's death?” she murmured, closing her eyes and letting the rain wash over her face.

“Yes. She helped me get over it.”

His words made something in her heart twist. Deep down Tifa had always known that Cloud had loved Aerith more than her. “Did you love her?”

Cloud swallowed hard. Once upon a time he had thought that he did. But now he chalked it up as taking in Zack's memories. He had loved her like a friend, but the only person who had always been on his mind had been Tifa. She had always been there. From the moment he had learned what a crush was, Tifa had always been on his mind. He had wanted to become stronger for her, in order to protect her. She was the reason why he was still alive. Why he had a home. Why he was willing to be a father to an eight-year-old and a ten-year-old when he was only twenty-three himself.

“Yes,” he finally replied, watching in alarm as her bottom lip trembled for a moment before she bit at it.

Her breath came out shaky and she tried to stop her features from scrunching up into a pain-filled frown. “Oh,” she said simply.

Cloud felt her pain in his own heart. He really wanted to make things up to her. Be her hero again. He wanted to her to let go of all the pain and doubt so that he could have a chance of making her happy. “But I loved her like a friend. Besides, I love you more.”

Tifa's eyes whipped to his and widened. “W-what?” she stammered, thinking she had heard wrong over the pattering of the rain on the street and over the roof.

Cloud offered a small smile at her incredulity. “You really have no idea how much you've meant to me all these years, do you?”

Her eyes moved away from his and were filled with that great sadness Cloud had seen many times before whenever she looked at him. He was the one responsible for that look on her eyes. There had to be a way to take that look away and make them shine like the sun again.

“Is it so hard to believe?” Cloud asked her.

Tifa pursed her lips slightly but did not turn to look at him again. “You never really had a good way of showing it.” She didn't sound bitter or angry. Tired. She sounded tired. She was tired of waiting for him and having her heart shattered.

“I'm sorry for that as well. I've done so many things the wrong way. I want to be a part of this family with you,” he stated, feeling the need to touch her but refraining.

“It took you dying and coming back to life to realize that you want to be a family with us,” she said dryly, shoulders trembling.

He did touch her then. He slid his hands up her bare arms and then turned her around. Her eyes were red and when he leaned over to press a kiss to her cheek, he tasted the salt from her tears. He had never seen her cry before, not since her mother had gone. Now, even though he couldn't see her tears, they drove into his heart like a knife. He didn't want to be the one to make her cry.

Her eyes slid closed at the touch of his lips on her skin. He kissed her forehead and her nose, before pressing a chaste kiss to her lips. She opened her eyes to find him watching her with those amazing, bright eyes of his. She let out a shaky breath. “I want to believe you, but I can't stand the thought of you leaving us again,” she whispered.

“If I leave, I'll be taking you all with me,” he said with a small smile, the rain coming down harder, washing away their pains, her doubts.

Tifa looked at him, eyes still uncertain and finally noticed that his eyes were clear. They were guilt free and no longer held that sadness that he had carried with him since Zack had been killed. He looked younger somehow.

“You promise?” she asked softly, oddly aware that she sounded like a child Marlene's age.

Cloud didn't answer. Instead he kissed her again, but this kiss had nothing chaste about it, Tifa mused. Though she was shocked that he was kissing her this way, she wasn't about to stop him. She had wished that something like this would've happened long ago. Maybe if it had, things would've been different. But she couldn't dwell on the `what if's,' or the `should've, would've, could've's.' The journey had been different, winding and rough, but they were ending up at the place she had wanted.

Her hands wrapped around his neck and she pressed herself to him, neither one caring that the rain was pouring down over them and they were already drenched. His hands were in the sopping locks of her long hair, running through them and pushing it away from her face. “The question is Tifa…… do you love me enough too? I want to be a part of this relationship, but I have to know that you're willing to put in all of you as well,” he whispered quickly against her temple.

Tifa smiled at his words. Did she love him enough? How could he ask her that? She had loved him too much these past few years. She would never want or love anyone the way she did him. “Yes,” she whispered. “I love you.”

Cloud silenced her with another smoldering kiss that literally took her breath away. They parted for air, which quickly left Tifa's lungs again when he moved to kiss her neck, his hands moving down her back to grasp at her bottom and lift her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and wished that they moved past their kissing quickly. She was getting cold.

Cloud moved them back into her room and set her on her feet besides the bed. “I don't want to do anything that you aren't comfortable with,” he whispered against her lips.

“I'm cold, Cloud,” she said in a voice gone husky. Then she placed his hands on the zipper of her top and guided it down, before pulling it off. The thin tank-top was next, followed by her shorts and her underwear.

Cloud stared at her for a fraction of a minute before pulling off his own sodden clothing. He then reached a hand over and ran it over the scar that ran down her abdomen. A proof of the fact that he had almost lost her that time at the reactor. He fell to his knees and ran his tongue over the scarred skin slowly, feeling her cold skin run with goosebumps under his tongue and fingertips.

Tifa watched him with nearly glazed eyes before pulling him to his feet and then to her bed. The thought that maybe they were moving too fast flitted across her mind for an instant, but she blew it away. They had been slow enough to get to this point, there was no doubt of what she wanted to do. She loved Cloud, from the moment he had promised to be her savior, her heart had been his. There was no room for doubts.

His skin was as cold as hers, but it felt heavenly when it pressed to her own. His mouth was certainly more than hot as it moved down her neck, over her collarbone and down to her chest. Her breathing was coming in soft pants as his hands moved below her waist. She felt a little uncertain, but she couldn't wait to feel his hands on her, in her.

Cloud moved back up, but kept his hands where he knew she wanted them the most. “I promise, Tifa,” he said, replying to the question she had asked him outside. “I will never leave you or our family again. You're my reason for living. Everything I have done, I've done it for you,” he whispered before kissing her again.

Tifa's eyes filled with tears again, but she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. “I need you, Cloud. I need you so much.”

He understood what she meant. After that, her speech capability went down the drain, along with the rain falling loudly outside and all the pain she had ever felt because of Cloud. He was inside her, moving in slow strokes, and he realized that he had never felt more at home than he did now. Her body was no longer cold and damp from the rain. Now it was covered in a feverish sweat that mingled with Cloud's as their bodies moved in sync.

The feel of her skin under his fingers felt as soft as the petals that had grown in the church, and smelled just as good. Everything about her was a sensory overload, and she was his. He had been a fool to not make a move before. He had been missing out on the best thing in his life. The way she trembled when he kissed her right shoulder, the way she said his name, and the way her hands touched him back. But those weren't the most important things. It was the way she looked at him now, all the pain and heartbreak gone from those beautiful chocolate colored eyes.

The rain had washed away their past. Their pain.

Cloud kissed her again and swallowed the low moan she released when he sped up and hit her in the right place. Her breathing was coming in rapid pants and he knew she was close. His own breath came out in a hiss as her nails dug into his back, making him arch and move into her deeper. That was all it took. He was mesmerized as he watched her own back arch and as her eyes slid closed, her face filled with intense pleasure. She was beautiful.

He had meant for this special moment to last, but it had been over in a matter of minutes. Tifa didn't care though. She had touched the stars and was holding Cloud as he stiffened against her and gave a great shudder, his voice coming out in a low moan against the side of her neck. They stayed that way for a few minutes, neither of them wanting to ruin the quiet atmosphere they had just created. A few minutes later, he withdrew from her gently and kissed her slowly, wrapping his arms around her.

“Tifa?” he asked with a smile, watching as she curled around him and laid her head against his chest.

“Hmmm?” she asked sleepily.

“I love you.”

She smiled. “I love you too, Cloud. More than you'll ever know…” she trailed off into sleep.

Cloud smiled and kissed her forehead. He was home.

……………

She had a feeling that she was forgetting something in the back of her mind. Tifa slowly opened her eyes to a dark room. Rain was still falling, she could hear it from where she was laying in bed, nude and wrapped in warm blankets. Then it all rushed back to her in an instant. She sat up and felt around her large bed to see if he was there.

He wasn't. Something inside of her broke at the fact that he wasn't there and so many things began to circle around in her mind. Maybe he had left for good this time and all of his words had been lies. She hated crying, but that was what she was doing now, she realized when she felt some tears run down her face. She curled up into a tight ball under the blankets and cried.

That was how Cloud found her when he returned. His face contorted into a worried frown as he looked at her and he rushed to the bed, pulling off his jacket as he went. “Tifa? What's wrong?” he asked urgently, wrapping his arms around her from behind.

Tifa looked at him with those big, lovely eyes and blinked back more tears. She then turned in his arms and hugged him tightly, choking on a sob. “I thought you had left.”

“Oh, I called Barret so that he could take the kids today. They're going to spend the day at his place watching movies and eating junk food,” Cloud said with a smile, kissing her bare shoulder.

Tifa figured that he didn't understand what she had meant. “No, I thought that you had left me for good, Cloud,” she whispered against his chest.

Cloud pulled back to look at her, a frown on his face. “I told you that I wouldn't leave you again, Tifa. You have to trust me,” he whispered before kissing her lips.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered, hugging him.

“Don't be. I understand that I've done things that have made you lose your trust in me. I just want to earn your faith on me again,” he said.

Tifa smiled again. “So, what excuse did you give Barret so that he could take the kids all day?” she asked.

Her answer came in the form of a kiss placed at the base of her neck, a spot that made her squirm. “I told him that we needed to rearrange the furniture around the house,” he said with a smirk.

She let out a throaty laugh. “And what are they going to say when they come home and see that there's no rearranged furniture?” she asked as she pulled off the t-shirt he had been wearing so that she could run her hands down his pale chest, tracing the outline of finely defined muscles.

“We'll just have to take breaks throughout the day so that we can go change some things around in the living room.”

“You plan on having me in bed for most of the day?” Tifa asked with a raised brow.

Cloud grinned before ducking under the blankets and kissing his way down her chest to her stomach.

Tifa let out a breathless laugh when he replied something unintelligible against her ticklish sides. “I didn't catch that!” she exclaimed.

Cloud moved up her body and out of the blankets so that she could see his face. “I said that we can try other places other than the bed if you don't want to stay here all day,” he said innocently.

Tifa let out another laugh, something she didn't remember doing in a very long time. “My goodness, Cloud. I never thought you were such a guy when it came to these things! Is this all you think about?” she asked, running her hands through his hair.

He kissed her cheek and her jaw as he slipped between her thighs. “When it comes to you, yes. But what can I say? I'm a man in love,” he whispered before kissing her deeply and pressing inside of her.

She gasped out and her eyes closed at the sensation of Cloud inside of her body. She hadn't even noticed when he had taken off his pants. “Tifa?” he murmured, pulling back to look at her but never stopping his slow movements.

It took her a few seconds to get her brain back together in order to reply. “…Yes?”

“Open you eyes,” he ordered lightly.

Tifa did and was a bit startled to see his face so close to hers.

“Marry me?”

Her eyes widened. “What? Are you serious?”

He did something slow and sinuous with his hips that made her nails dig into the sheets. “Completely,” he replied. “I want to share the rest of my life with you. Besides, we'll be able to adopt Denzel before we have our own kids,” he said matter-of-factly.

Tifa stared at him for a full minute, searching his wonderfully clear eyes and trying to see if that was what he really wanted. She smiled and hugged him tightly. “Yes. Yes. Of course I want to marry you!”

“Good,” he said before kissing her again. “Very good.”

……………………̷ 0;

“I have very strong suspicions that this little thing… person I mean, was conceived that day when Cloud asked you to take Marlene and Denzel for the day,” muttered Yuffie as she and Barret stared at the sleeping baby in his crib.

Barret smirked. “I still remember when Tifa told him that she was expecting. Spiky looked as if he would faint if he didn't sit down so Cid slapped him on the back hard enough to cough up a lung before I gave him a chair.”

Vincent walked over to look at the one-year-old boy and his mouth twitched. He looked like an exact mix of Tifa and Cloud. He had Tifa's hair, nose, and mouth, but the rest were Cloud's features, including his eyes and the color. At the short age of twenty-five, Cloud was the proud father of Denzel, Marlene, and little Zack. He and Tifa were the picture perfect family. Vincent's red eyes shifted to the young woman who had inched closer to him when Barret walked over to speak to Cloud.

“What about you, Vince? When are you going to settle down? I'd like to see little Vinnies running around soon,” Yuffie whispered, her eyes on his face.

He gave her an amused look when no one else was looking. “I don't think you're ready for my offspring,” he replied.

She giggled at his remark and recognized the small joke he had made, but then slapped a hand over her mouth when the baby stirred and blinked sleepy eyes. “Oh man,” she said before picking up the boy and cradling him gently. “Sorry, kid, didn't mean to wake you.”

“You see? You're a screamer. For everything you do, you have to raise your voice. A child of ours wouldn't get to sleep peacefully with you around the house,” he said before moving away from her when Tifa walked over to them.

Tifa smiled and took her son from the young girl, kissing his soft cheek. “How's mommy's baby?”

“I'm a bit hungry, but otherwise okay,” Cloud replied from behind her, pecking her lips lightly.

“I was talking to Zack,” Tifa said with an amused laugh.

Cloud looked at Yuffie. “Ever since that kid came around, Tifa's been neglecting me,” he said with a pout. Zack blinked away the last vestiges of sleep and smiled widely when he saw his father. “But that's okay. He's starting to grow on me,” he said before taking the baby in his arms and hugging him.

“Zack, be nice to daddy, he's jealous of you,” Tifa said before pulling Yuffie along and towards the outside of the house.

“He's been a good father, hasn't he?” Yuffie asked Tifa as they sat against the low wall that divided Tifa's home from the next.

“He has,” Tifa said, nodding. “It's been rough. Zack is a light sleeper and any noise wakes him up. We've tried getting him used to sounds while he sleeps, but it doesn't seem to work. Not to mention all the diaper changes, or when he gets sick. Motherhood is hard.” She watched the young woman intently. “Why haven't you told Vincent?”

Yuffie shrugged. “Though he's not ashamed of people knowing that we're together and he's gotten used to me telling him that I love him, I think he's uncomfortable with public displays of affection. Besides, he thinks that we're not fit to be parents yet.”

“He told you that?”

“He said that a child of ours wouldn't get much sleep because I yell over everything. He told me that I'm not ready for his offspring, and maybe he's right. But I guess it's too late for that now,” said Yuffie with a small giggle. “He's going to flip out completely when I tell him, or as much as can be expected from Vincent Valentine. He'll probably feel the need to shoot things.”

“As long as he doesn't shoot you,” said Tifa sarcastically.

“He wouldn't dare. Not when I carry a part of him inside of me,” Yuffie said, patting her flat stomach.

“What?” asked a voice from behind them.

Both women turned to look at the stoic man standing behind them. Yuffie's mouth dropped open and she stood, her mouth moving but no words coming out. Tifa cleared her throat as she looked from Yuffie to Vincent. “I think I'll leave you two alone,” she said before walking back into the house.

She stood in the doorway, watching Cloud as he held his son in one arm and bounced him gently as he talked to Cid and Barret about something. Denzel and Marlene were sitting at a table, playing a card game that looked suspiciously like Poker. Hmmm. She would need to have a serious talk with Cid about that.

Their wedding had been a small one, amongst friends and at the Forgotten City. Cloud had given her a simple yet beautiful ring of white-gold that matched his. Her dress had been a simple white dress with a halter-top, and it trailed behind her. Her hair had been held back from her face on one side with a white butterfly pin, and she'd held a bouquet of the flowers that Aerith had once grown in the church.

Later on, while they partied at the bar and made toasts all around, Tifa had blurted that she couldn't drink any alcohol. At least not for the next eight months. Seriously, Cloud had almost fainted had Cid not slapped him on the back and had Barret not slammed a chair behind him so that he could sit down. That had to have been one of the most memorable moments of her life.

Whenever things got a little overwhelming when it came to his job as delivery boy—which he had cut back on, a lot—or when being parents became too much, all he had to do was hold her to reassure her that he was there for her. That he hadn't left and would never leave again. Even though they had arguments now and then about trivial things, he had never left her in a fit of anger because he always remembered his promise. No matter how peeved he became with her, he was always there.

Tifa smiled when his eyes met hers and he waved Zack's chunky fist at her in a salute. The boy made a noise of protest because said fist had been lodged in his mouth while he sucked on it happily. All the pain and doubt had been long gone and she vaguely wondered if the rain had healed her pain the way it had healed the Geostigma.

Cloud watched her as she was deep in thought. There was not a thing about her that he didn't love. She was a wonderful mother and the best partner a guy like him could ask for. They had a beautiful baby together, and he was thankful to Tifa everyday for having been the one who had given him such a gift. She had named him Zack, for his deceased friend, and that had meant more to Cloud than she imagined.

He was happy. Happier than he remembered ever being. Pain free and full of love. He had a family. He had a home.

……

Yuffie bit her lip as she gazed into Vincent's startled eyes, trying to think of something to say to him. “Umm, surprise?” she asked, trying for humor and failing. Miserably.

“Why didn't you tell me?” he asked slowly.

She shrugged and felt the insane urge to cry. Gosh, did the hormones and mood swings kick in this early? “I'm sorry,” she exploded loudly. He gave her a pointed look and Yuffie looked embarrassed. “You told me that I wasn't ready for a baby, so then I got scared that you would be mad.”

“So you weren't planning on telling me? Or were you going to wait until the child was born to let me know that I was going to be a father?” Vincent asked darkly.

“I was going to tell you today! And don't talk to me like that!” she yelled, feeling raindrops fall on her just as tears fell from her eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest petulantly and turned her back to him. “Jerk,” she said under her breath.

Vincent noticed her shoulders shaking and her slumped stance made something inside of him knot in remorse; a part of himself he had thought long dead. They had had a very strange relationship for the past two years. At first, it had all started as something physical. A release for the both of them after so many hardships and missions that had kept their nerves on edge.

Then slowly she had wormed her way into his warped heart, the way she had wormed herself into his arms. Vincent had to admit that he had enjoyed the feel of her in his arms from the very first time. She was a small—almost delicate if she wasn't such a wild animal sometimes—woman, almost an entire foot smaller than him. She had fit perfectly against his body.

If he moved past the Materia stealing and the loudness of her voice, she was a desirable companion. She knew when to listen and not talk—as amazing and unbelievable as that sounded—and knew exactly how to stroke his dark heart to make him feel human again. She was everything he wanted and everything he hated. But what was more important was that he loved her. In his own way, he loved her.

She was watching him with those dark, clever eyes of hers, even as the rain kept falling all around them. Yuffie let out a deep breath and shook her head. “I should get back to my hotel room. We're getting nowhere and I don't think that standing in the rain is good for me right now,” she said before heading towards the fence so that she could leave.

“Wait,” Vincent said, grabbing her arm and turning her around. She gave him an expectant look. “You should tell the others that you're leaving,” he said lamely.

Yuffie's eyes narrowed before she snatched her arm from his grip and walking away. “I'll call Tifa from my room,” she said, not turning to look at him or even saying goodbye.

Vincent stood there for a long moment, the rain flattening his hair and soaking his clothes through and through.

“You should go after her,” said Tifa from behind him, standing under the safety of the porch, out of the rain. “She's scared because being pregnant is something beautiful yet terrifying. I say it from experience.”

“We should be the last two people on this planet to be procreating,” said Vincent in a monotone.

“Why? Because she's such an upbeat person—to the point that she's a little crazy—and because you have a dark past? That's not true. Look at me and Cloud. He went through so many things in his past, as did I, but we needed a family to take care of and to take care of us. He loves the kids and he loves me, though it took him a while to get to this point. Yuffie needs you now, more than ever,” she said lightly. “A baby is a miracle sent to you for a reason. Maybe it will finally settle Yuffie down and……”

“…… To atone to some of my sins,” Vincent whispered.

Tifa caught his words, but only faintly. She decided to remain silent. “Will you stand by her and prove to her that you love her? Or will you abandon her and the child that is growing as we speak?”

Vincent turned to look at her and offered a faint smile, only a tilt of the corner of his mouth. He then turned to leave. “Thank you, Tifa,” he said, but the rain carried most of it away.

It didn't matter, Tifa heard him and with a smile turned to go back into the house. She nearly ran into Cloud in the hallway. “Where are Yuffie and Vincent?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist.

“Trying to figure out how to deal with a new baby and their half-formed relationship,” Tifa whispered before kissing him.

Cloud pulled back and raised his eyebrows in shock. “They're having a baby?” he whispered.

She nodded and gave him a conspiratorial look. “But you can't tell anyone because Yuffie just found out two days ago and Vincent barely found out ten minutes ago. It's her news and she needs to break it to everyone.”

“I bet Vincent will be a very interesting father. He'll teach the kid to shoot at the age of two,” he said with a chuckle.

Tifa scoffed and slapped him on the chest. “They have a lot of things to work out. I just hope that they're not too jaded to throw away something as good as what they have.”

“What about what we have?” Cloud asked, nuzzling her neck affectionately.

“Lucky for you we figured it out the day little Zack was conceived,” Tifa said before kissing a spot on his jaw. “Or rather, the night before. But we're okay, right?”

“Better than okay,” Cloud replied before cupping her jaw and leaning in to kiss her.

……………

She felt a few tears trail down her clean face as she towel-dried her hair. I guess expecting happiness from Vincent was too much, she thought sadly. But she wouldn't wallow in self-pity. She had someone else to look forward to. Someone who would need her love and protection more than the man she loved.

“Don't worry, baby. You'll have me and that'll be enough,” she whispered as she stared at the window, watching the rain that was falling in torrents.

“I'd like to think that it really is enough, but Cloud has told me differently. He said a few months back that a child needs a mother and a father,” said Vincent from the door.

Yuffie looked at him before turning away. He was soaked from the rain falling outside. “Not if one parent doesn't want the child.”

“I never said I didn't want it,” he replied, moving to stand by the bed.

“I can be a good mother,” she said defensively, setting down the towel and ruffling her hair. She'd taken a hot shower as soon as she had arrived. It wouldn't do her good to get sick now.

Vincent smiled to himself and was reminded that she was still young herself. Chronologically, he was sixty-one, but he felt like he was almost thirty. Wasn't that the age that most people wanted to settle down and have children? Was he worthy enough to be a father to an innocent being?

“What are you thinking about?” Yuffie asked as she stood and walked over to stand in front of him.

“That maybe this child was brought to our lives in order to make up for some of my sins,” he replied, hooking a finger under her chin and lifting it up in order to look her in the eyes.

Yuffie smiled slightly. “Our sins, Vince. I'm not a white dove either. Maybe we were given this baby in order to be happy. To be normal again,” she said, placing a hand on his chest and standing on tip-toes for a kiss.

Vincent bent his head and touched her lips softly. When had things moved from being physical to being emotional? From the moment those lips had touched his without care for his past or the things he had the done, or for what he was. She was pureness. Pure happiness, pure energy, pure positive emotions. She was everything he wasn't, and she was his other half.

She was also tugging at the clasps of his cloak and removing all the sopping material. When the top-half of his clothes were gone, she ran a hand over the scarred, pale skin lovingly. “I am a lucky man,” he whispered as he undid the knot of the bath robe she was wearing.

“Why?” Yuffie asked as she undid his belt and pushed off his pants.

“Because I have someone like you to love all of me and to not care about my past,” he said before kissing her. This kiss was hot and full of need, the way it always was when he needed her to make those deep insecurities to go away.

He laid her down gently on her bed, kissing his way down her chest, hands touching gently and setting her on fire. He paused at her stomach before pressing a gentle kiss there and continued on his way. Though Yuffie didn't care much for foreplay, whenever Vincent indulged her, he made her see stars. And at that very moment, she was seeing stars dance around in her vision. The feel of his mouth on her was almost overwhelming and it wasn't long before she was nearly screaming his name out.

As she lay there panting, trying to get her breathing back to normal and feeling her body a bit heavy, he moved up her body and slid into her easily. “There are times,” he whispered against her neck, “when I don't mind your screaming.”

Yuffie giggled breathlessly before kissing him, feeling her back arch when he started to move. She had a feeling that Vincent indulged her with foreplay because afterwards, she was too sated to scream for him. “You'll stay with me then?” she whispered against his lips.

Vincent kissed her collarbone gently. “Yes. I will try my best to give you both what you need.”

She rolled them over and straddled his hips. “That's good,” she gasped out before she started to move. “Because you know that I'm a tough girl to please.”

He smirked. “I've known that from the moment we met,” he said, breath becoming uneven.

She leaned forward to suck his bottom lip into her mouth, feeling the pleasurable burn begin all over again as she sped up her movements. No more words were needed between them, though it seemed to Yuffie that most of their relationship revolved around silence, at least on his part. It made her wonder if he had kissed her that first time only to shut her up.

His hands were on her waist and they were large enough to almost curl around completely. But he ran his thumbs over the smooth, flat skin of her belly, where their child was starting to grow. She vaguely wondered what he wanted the baby to be, but then her body was losing control and she threw her head back and gasped in pleasure.

As she came down from the high and laid on his chest, she felt his own breath still as his release washed over him as well. She rolled off his chest when she regained movement of her limbs and smiled when he spooned her and kissed her cheek. “Yuffie?”

“Yes?” she murmured with a smile when his hand curled over her stomach.

“I…… I love you,” he said, having a bit of difficulty at voicing the feeling.

She turned in his arms and kissed him slowly, languidly as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “I know,” she said with a grin, staring into his crimson colored eyes as they swept over every inch of her face. “You should know by now that things like that don't escape Yuffie Kisaragi—the greatest ninja ever known!”

He gave a snort before running his lips down her neck. “And I take back what I said to you today. You're going to be a good mother.”

Those words warmed her heart greatly and she reached up to caress his handsome face. “With you by my side, I know I will. The same way I know that you will be a good father too,” she whispered before their lips met again.

The End

…

So what did you think about my very first fic in this genre? Was it good? Was it bad? Was it too OOC? Let me know and any criticism is welcome. Thanks for taking the time to read it! And if anyone is interested, I'm working on a fic that would be the opposite of this one. A `what if Cloud had left and not come back for a long time?' If you would like to see that one, let me know so that I can finish it.

Byebye

!Joey!