Note: I was replaying Final Fantasy VII for the first time in years. Unsurprisingly, once again I was struck by some errant Clerith feels. I regret very little.

Reviews are pretty awesome.

Whether near or far
I am always yours
Any change in time
We are young again

They'd been watching the stars for an hour before Aerith realized they were the only two still awake, their breath turning to fog, and their voices slowly growing quieter. One by one, voices had dropped from the lazy conversation, until it was only Cloud who answered her. Shoulder to shoulder, they talked about everything and nothing then, things they'd done, things they wished they'd done, and all the things they were going to do.

She preferred to talk about the future than the past. Futures were bright and lively things that could be turned into anything you wanted them to be. Pasts were unchanging and nothing in the world could disturb what had already happened. You had to leave them as they were, and if it hurt there was nothing you could do about it.

So she told him all the things she was going to do with her life, and how wonderful it would be. She'd make it happen. Everything would work out, he'd see.

"I know it will," he murmured, "you wouldn't let anything get in the way."

She nodded- though he probably couldn't see that in the dark.

"You know me, I never do."

And it was true, she grinned. Certainly there were people who thought she was something delicate and weak, but appearances could be deceiving. She wasn't the sort of person who backed down, she wasn't the sort of person who gave up. She'd always worked for what she had, and she'd held onto it with a vice like grip, even if some of those things had managed to slip away.

Some. Many was more like it. She didn't like to think about them, not too often, but starlit nights by the campfire were the sort of nights you couldn't help but reminisce and wonder who else might have been there with you, had they not left your life without a backwards glance.

It hurt to think about, and she shook the miserable thoughts to turn back to the pleasant ones. She was camping beneath the stars with her friends, and somehow she'd ended up next to Cloud. It wasn't a bad place to find herself, not even a little.

Cloud fell silent- as she'd known he would. He was the quiet type, always had been and, she assumed, always would be. Cloud was stoic and brooding, though not badly natured. Even his closest friend, Tifa, knew him to be the strong and silent type, the one always on the outskirts of conversations, just the way he wanted it. Aerith liked that about him. Or, more accurately, she liked the fact that she was the only one who seemed able to break him out of that mold.

It wasn't that she liked to toy with him or anything of the sort, she thought, just that there was something special about peeling back his hard shell and catching a glimpse of what lay beneath. There was something special hiding there, she knew it. And she thought that he might like it too, not that he'd ever admit it. He just needed to let her in.

Aerith turned to grin at him. She could see a little of his face, illuminated by the fire. His eyes were shut, and she thought she could see the beginnings of a smile at the edges of his mouth, though it was hard to tell in the dark, and harder to tell because it was Cloud and only God knew when the guy was trying to look happy.

"Hey Cloud," she wriggled a little closer, "Cloud?"

He opened one eye to stare at her.

"I'm really cold," she pouted.

For a moment he didn't do anything but look at her, and then she felt a shy arm slip under her shoulders and pull her closer. Just as she'd suspected it would. He wrapped his other arm over her side, and simply looked at her, as though awaiting further instruction. She didn't need to be a genius to know that he hadn't exactly found himself in similar situations very often, not with his wall up and his guard on around everyone.

Aerith felt herself almost instinctively moving closer against him, drinking in his warmth and the simple satisfaction that she was the only person in the world that Cloud would even have considered drawing closer. If anyone else on their camping trip - even Tifa or Yuffie - had complained of being cold, well. They wouldn't have ended up in his arms.

In his arms.

It was hard not to feel safe there. She nuzzled even closer to him, feeling his arms tighten around her for a moment, before he began to rub her arms and back. It wouldn't do for her to be cold, after all, would it?

For a moment she reveled silently in the fact that Cloud, of all people, was doting on her. He wasn't the type for that sort of thing, not usually. You could see it in the moment you met him. He tolerated you, or he didn't. It was rather black and white without any varying shades, and he certainly didn't dote.

Except when it came to her, apparently. The thought made her wriggle with mischief and satisfaction. A small and misbehaving part of herself wanted to see what else she was an exception for.

Fighting to keep a grin from bursting out over her face, Aerith pressed her hands against him.

"My hands are still cold, Cloud," she sighed pitifully.

"They don't feel cold."

Of course they don't, but that's besides the point.

"But they are," she insisted, "feel them!"

"They feel warm to me."

"That must be yours, mine are still freezing."

Cloud met her with silence. Not that she'd really expected much else, but he was holding her hands now, and that did nothing but encourage her.

"They're really, really cold," she said, coyly tugging her hands away from his own, and trying to wrap her hands up in the excess of his baggy shirt to press against his chest, "come on, you've gotta feel that."

He grunted. From anyone else she would have thought they were getting annoyed with her. Cloud was different. A grunt could mean anything from him, and not necessarily anything bad. And even if she was poking and prodding at his shell, he'd put up with it so far, and if she was reveling in the attention from him it wasn't entirely unpredictable, she thought, that he might be enjoying her own.

She sighed, "Kiss them to warm them up."

It had been a joke. She'd just wanted to fluster him, that was all. She wanted to make him shy and she wanted to drag him back out and see him blush for her. She didn't think he'd actually do it.

But after a brief pause, she felt his larger hands gather up her own again and bring them tentatively to his lips, where he placed one soft kiss, and then another.

For a moment she was too surprised to even consider responding. Cloud was predictable. He was silent and stoic and brooding, and around her he was awkward and shy. She could guess his next move from a mile away.

She just hadn't guessed that that would have been it.

Much more predictably she felt Cloud roll away from her, and she heard the old shyness in his voice when he spoke, almost roughly.

"Warm now?"

"Oh very much so. Thank you," she didn't try to hide her grin, "that was very sweet of you."

He nodded dumbly, and Aerith almost giggled at how uncomfortable he was. It was cute to be honest, how easily flustered he could be by her. She doubted anyone else had ever managed that, and she took some pride in the accomplishment of flustering the impenetrable Cloud.

But then she felt him pulling away, starting to detach himself and move to stand. She couldn't let him, and she didn't entirely know why, but she grabbed at his arm, and almost urgently held him back.

"Hey, Cloud… stay?"

Please don't leave me.

She could hear the note of pleading in her voice, and she knew that he could as well. It was obvious and loud, even if she was only whispering to him.

He stayed, of course he did. Cloud was like that. He wasn't going to leave her on her own. He wasn't like a lot of other people in that way. She tightened her grip on his arm.

They sat up together and watched the fire crackle and spark, his arm wrapped around her shoulders to keep her close. She watched embers float up in the smoke, dying out before they got too high, like miniature, burning stars. They didn't even need to talk, really, though they whispered back and forth as thoughts came and went.

She began to drift off, her eyelids growing heavy and her thoughts growing scattered and simple. She was tired. He was warm. She was warm. His arm felt nice around her. She was safe. The fire was pretty. The smoke smelled sweet. The trees were tall. The stars were beautiful.

Will I be alone in the morning?

"Hey, Cloud?" she turned to study his impassive face, "If I fall asleep will you be right here when I wake up?"

"Aerith-"

"Will you stay?"

He took a sharp breath, and Aerith knew he'd understood. She didn't just mean tonight. She curled her fingers into her palms, Gods, she just wished he would stay and be there every time she woke up. And never walk out of her life. But he wouldn't do that to her, not if she just held onto him, she wouldn't let him disappear.

"Forever," came the simple reply.

She felt soft lips press against her forehead and leave a gentle kiss. He pulled her closer to his side and wrapped an extra arm around her. He would keep her safe.

As she let herself slip away, smiling, she wondered how those soft lips would feel pressed against her own.

In these coming years
Many things will change
But the way I feel
Will remain the same