Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VII and its characters belong to the awesome Square Enix.

Rating: M, for angst and some good old smut

East of Midgar

by theClosetPoet7

Summary: It takes a month before he even contemplates about sleeping in the same bed with her again. Maybe it is because he still feels a little guilty about leaving. Or maybe it is because he knows that they will eventually find their way back to each other. [Post Advent Children]

Closed doors have never once bothered him before. However, when he sees the fact that she's keeping hers shut, he accepts it, but not without the feeling of unease in the pit of his stomach, churning his inner demons who encourage his insecurities as they walk through the halls of their house. She follows him to where he will be sleeping for the night, albeit hesitantly but with a certain openness in her heart that somehow tells him that though it isn't entirely impossible, he shouldn't have considered the possibility that he might be able to hold her tonight.

Maybe it is because he still feels a little guilty about leaving even when she has already welcomed him home with open arms. Even when he knows that he is forgiven. Maybe, it is because he has convinced himself that he doesn't deserve to be by her side after everything that's happened. Even when he hadn't hesitated as much since that night amidst Meteor's fall. Or maybe it is simply because he is afraid to even make the first move, still so shy when it came down to them. Still so hesitant though he was once confident for it was him who had proposed the idea of living together in the first place.

A small part of him though, that tiny part whose adrenaline kept on going after that last fight with Sephiroth, thinks that maybe, just maybe, it is because he knows that they will eventually find their way back to each other again.

Someday perhaps.

But not today.

Today he accepts the bedding she gives him, scarlet eyes regarding him with caution but with kindness as well when he finally unpacks his belongings into the office he had claimed as his own room all those months ago; when he could no longer bear to sleep next to her because what if she catches the disease, too? What if she perishes along with him? He just couldn't let that happen.

Not to her.

Never to her.

Still though.

He had missed it; the feeling of her chest's rise and fall to the cadence of her peaceful breathing; the warmth of her back as he pulls her closer to him when he too succumbs to a dreamless sleep, and the softness of her slim fingers wrapped shyly in the space between his own when she smiles up at him as he moves to his own completion.

He had missed her.

He had missed them.

Aerith's church had been a safe haven, a space he could call his own while he increased their distance to keep them safe. But it wasn't home. It didn't have the warmth Seventh Heaven's walls provided. It didn't have the smell of Tifa's delicious beef stew as he came back from a long delivery. It didn't have the joyous laughter of Marlene and Denzel on those rare occasions when they'd play swords and dragons.

It just wasn't home.

He's living with Tifa and the children again.

But even though they're in the same building, he still misses her.

Settling back into their usual routine surprisingly comes easy. But now that he thinks about it, it had always been easy with her. She greets him a "good morning" and puts a plate of eggs and whatever protein she has decided to cook in front of him each day. She would hum a soft tune as she pours him his coffee, remembering his preference for half a teaspoon of sugar. And out of consideration, she cheerfully reads the weather to him.

There is a sense of peace he finds himself in during these times, in the early hours of the morning, while the sun itself is slowly rising. Because this time is reserved for just the two of them.

Tifa always sits across him, a pretty smile on her face as she asks him about his plans. Face shining brightly when she listens on about the route he is planning to take. He would then ask if she needed anything like a certain exotic fruit or perhaps a rare piece of meat to serve with the alcohol she prepared.

She refuses at first.

But after a week of the same occurrence, she gives him a list and sheepishly curves her lips up when his eyes widen at the number of items on the paper.

It didn't matter though.

For her, he will get them.

Yes.

It is easy getting back into their daily routine.

And when Cloud returns home with all the purchased requests and he hears the kids run down the stairs to ask him if he's done for the day, he thanks the gods for bringing him back to them.

Tifa follows suit while taking her apron off to greet him.

For bringing him back to his family.

Occasionally, Tifa flirts with her patrons. Not in the overly forward kind of flirting that some people may raise eyebrows at. Just the kind of friendly banter that makes her customers' stay at the bar even more enjoyable. The kind that would once in a while make his heart clench into a feeling of intense, unreasonable envy even before he left. Yet it was one that he could never fault her for because she is just sometimes unintentionally too nice.

He knows she could handle the handsy men too, especially when they would try to reach out for her ample bosom only to be swiftly kicked out before they could even realize what they were about to do. His hand would curl into a fist, a remnant of the rowdy Nibelheim boy he once was taking hold of his common sense until he snaps out of it when he'd hear a crash or two as she escorts them out of the establishment.

So he lets her go about her own business as he carries crates of beer into the storage room, and he lets her laughs fill the room when he wipes some wine off the counter, and he simply lets her be; basking in her presence, a hint of a smirk on his face when she glances his way and meets his eyes across the room to wink at him when a middle-aged man orders another round of drinks for everyone.

.

.

.

She still manages to make his heart pump as loudly as it did on that water tower years ago.

The first night he takes too long to come home, he finds her on the couch in the living room, limp arm falling off as the lights from the tv screen dance around her face. He kneels down to brush a strand of hair from her cheek, attention falling on her slightly parted lips as she exhales, the scent of mint teasing his boyish pining.

He leans over her but stops himself, shaking his head for almost claiming those cherry lips without her consent. He puts a hand on her forearm instead and lightly shakes her.

"Tifa."

"Mm.. Cloud, you're back."

She's always been a light sleeper.

"Yeah."

Her arms wrap around him in an instant and the action catches him off guard that he almost falls on her as she drowsily pulls him tighter to her cold body.

"You didn't answer my call."

The tone in her voice reawakens the guilt inside him, but he pushes it down because he knows she didn't mean it in a condescending way. She was just worried.

"I'm sorry. It was on silent."

She shakes her head at this but still holds onto him.

"I'm glad you're safe."

She drifts off into sleep again, so he wraps his arms around her, noting the scotch glass on the coffee table, and carries her to their... her room.

.

.

.

He doesn't put his phone on silent after that.

It takes a month before he even contemplates about sleeping in the same bed with her again.

But he wants her.

He still wants her.

He knows he does.

These desires come out once in a while. They fan his inner turmoil when he sees her come out fresh from a shower and they have to dance around the other for him to go in next. When he'd finally close the door, chest heaving with bated breath out of nervousness, the scent of her lavender lotion would stir his loins. And he'd remember vividly how she'd smell like during those nights filled with rutting sweat.

The ache would take hold of his thoughts whenever she too feels the urge to indulge herself in her own touch and his Mako enhanced senses could not help but hear her small gasps of pleasure that she tries to hide in the confines of their once-upon-a-time shared quarters. He'd give in to the temptation to cater to his needs whenever she does, seeing nothing but carmine eyes in his head as he summons forth memories of almost a year ago when they would feel as connected as they did on that night under the Highwind.

He would always, always want her.

Because they had chained their souls to each other that night. At least, he had, swearing to himself that there would be no one else but her when he finally thrusted home. Feeling like he belonged somewhere for the first time in his life. Not in Nibelheim when his anger as an adolescent always got the best of him. Not with Shinra, as an infantryman who wasn't good enough to become Soldier, a failure in his own eyes. Not even in the Lifestream when he'd seen himself as a clone once resolving in his spirit that maybe it was best if he went back into the Planet itself.

To the Promised Land.

No.

Not even there.

At the time, his thoughts told him that this was where he belonged, between Tifa Lockhart's thighs, arms circling around her strong body, lips finding purchase of her smooth neck as his tongue comes out to lick the sweat off her pulse. Hips moving in a back and forth motion, indulging in a sensual act he has never done before but wants to do again in the future.

Over and over again.

With her.

In her.

Because words couldn't even begin to describe the depths of his feelings for her.

For hasn't it always been her?

Home was where she was.

Home was inside her.

Those were his convictions that night.

It didn't even matter if they didn't survive the next day.

Yet they did.

And it didn't take long for them to end up in bed together after the world almost ended. Holy had served its purpose by destroying Meteor, the planet saved itself as they awaited their fate. But when the dust and fear finally settled all over them and their comrades had returned to their own homes, he had been left with the remnants of what was once Avalanche.

She was never really one for overthinking things and feeling like her sins were far too great to be able to live peacefully, but he had sought her hand in his and swore that she would never have to go through it alone because he would be there to remind her of who she was.

That night, they had found themselves in a makeshift refugee camp generously opened to the public by a once grand hotel near the outskirts of Midgar. Barret goes off to get Marlene and assures them that he'd come meet them in Edge, which was rumored to be in progress at the time.

The room they had was small yet it had sufficed, and the moment they'd finally had a warm shower and their bellies had been filled with diluted soup, he had wasted no time in claiming her lips again, hands shaking as he sheds her of her clothes, a string of curses coming out of his lips when he entered her for the second time. And Gaia, was it even better than the first time.

There was no shyness then, no conscious effort to impress the other. Just raw longing, intense emotions taking hold of them at the relief of their survival, hands pulling at each other fiercely as they tried to mold their bodies into one being. He had whispered "I'll remind you" repeatedly until she reached ecstasy.

Maybe in the end it was him who needed reminding, because at the very thought of losing the children who were precious to him, he had wanted to run far away. To distance himself from the possibility of failure because hadn't he failed twice before? Hadn't he let Zack and Aerith die? But she wasn't going to let him run. And just like that, he had gone anyway, heart feeling a certain heaviness but mind reminding himself that even if he had failed his other friends, he did not want to fail his new family.

So here he is.

A month later.

Standing in front of her door, fisting his hands while he finds the right words to say in his head. When he finally decides on an acceptable sentence, the door opens before he could even knock.

"Cloud?"

The sight of his oversized shirt on her curvy frame almost manages to make him forget about his purpose, but he is determined to take that step.

"Tifa, I.."

She tilts her head to the left, eyes shining with concern as she gives him her full attention.

"I would like to come back."

She crinkles her nose at this, a perfectly shaped eyebrow raising up to study him.

"But you're already back, Cloud."

He takes one of her hands in his, Mako-blue eyes sparkling with confidence when he meets hers.

"I mean, I want to sleep next to you again."

The blush on her cheeks is instantaneous. But she nods her head and steps aside to let him in.

There is a sense of intense yearning when she closes the door behind her and runs her hand over her arm to regard him with those eyes. He knows what she's thinking because he is thinking about the same thing.

It had been too long.

But it would have to wait for another day, because right now he simply wants to be by her side. To feel her body next to his.

So he lets her lead him to the bed, and he pulls the covers away to settle on his side, thoughts already coming into his head that perhaps this isn't such a good idea after all because maybe he's only making things awkward between them. He doesn't even know how she feels about him now.

Her hand holds his under the covers.

Effectively halting the onslaught of negative ideas that were absolutely not true.

.

.

.

"I've missed you."

And it is like instinct when he returns her hold, fingers intertwining as he lets the dark fall over his eyes.

He doesn't know how he has managed to stay away for this long.

They move his stuff back to their room the next day. Marlene gives them a look of teasing that reminds him too much of how Aerith would be looking at them if she were alive. Denzel helps while smiling with pride about how he is able to lift a box of travel books, no longer weak from the disease that had afflicted him.

It doesn't take much time before he closes the door to their closet after putting the rest of his clothes away. He glances at the room and smiles when he looks at the vast array of shared items they had on display; his sword against the wall, her boxing gloves beside it, his folded maps over his bedside table, and her alarm clock on hers.

Today is his official homecoming.

Today he comes home to her.

Their dinner that night tasted better than anything else he's ever had. Fish and chips, a staple of the bar's menu. Yet it was so good that he couldn't help but hold her hand under the sink's bubbles as they washed the dishes.

Her cheeks are painted in pink hues.

And with the way they shyly play with each others' fingers, they feel like young teenagers again.

He's been wanting to kiss Tifa.

As he watches her play with Marlene's hair while she dutifully braids it and wraps the ribbon to hold it in place, Cloud thinks that he wants to kiss her. Her lips are highlighted by the simple lip balm she uses out of the need to prevent chapping. It's a look so simple and so natural that he couldn't help but stare at them while he ponders on how they would feel like after all this time.

"Cloud?"

He shakes his head at the thought and bends down to Marlene's level while he puts her backpack around her shoulders.

"Are you excited?"

The six year old nods enthusiastically while shouting at Denzel to hurry up because she will not be late on their first day of school. They rush about as Tifa hurries to pack ham sandwiches and juice boxes into their bags. It takes fifteen minutes before he has both children on Fenrir while Tifa puts a helmet over Marlene's head.

Denzel nearly refuses because,

"Cloud doesn't wear a helmet."

"Well, his hair is too spiky and it can't take too much of the pressure."

Her playful teasing puts a smirk on his face, and he shakes his head at the memory of her comparing his blond locks to a chocobo. His cheeks warm when he remembers how she made his heart race back then; when she had said that she would take the reigns that one night at the Golden Saucer.

"So unfair!"

"Just put it on, kid."

Hearing his hero's stern voice is enough for the twelve year old. He pats Denzel's head in approval and pulls the motorcycle away from the driveway, nodding towards Tifa as she waves goodbye.

She looks melancholic when he comes back, eyes staring out the window as she sips on her unfinished cup of tea with honey. He walks over and stands next to her, following her line of sight and spotting the statue of the angel looking towards the sky. When he looks at her again, she's smiling at him, head tilting up in just the right way that if he could move a few inches closer, he'll be right where he wants to be.

"Kiss me?"

It's like she's just read his thoughts that it takes him a moment to realize that he had not imagined those two words. His eyes clear then, and with the determination set in his blue orbs as well as the want he's been keeping at bay, Cloud kisses her under the sun's rays seeping in through their window, and he pulls her to him when he changes his angle and brushes her lips with his over and over again.

.

.

.

He can't stop himself from kissing her after that.

He thinks that this is what love is.

They've never said it to each other.

But when Tifa tucks the children in and she kisses their cheeks and says she loves them, Cloud thinks that maybe he loves her.

Or maybe he's in love with her.

No, not maybe.

He has always been in love with her.

It happens one random night.

One moment he's kissing her goodnight, and the next he's deepening it into something that promises more. Tifa gasps at his tongue's intrusion, pulling away while her fingers play with the hair on his nape. She's biting into her well-kissed lips as she glances at the bed they've been sharing for two months now. His hands settle on her waist and pull her closer to his hard frame as he lets out a puff of breath and hesitantly murmurs in her ear.

"Is this okay?"

"Yes."

He feels her nod. Her hands release his neck to lightly skim his back, raising his shirt with them. Her soft touch steals his breath and in return he pulls away to take it off. His lips settle over hers again and resumes the intense kiss they shared moments ago, tongue tangling with hers as he touches her breast through her thin shirt.

She gasps out at the caress, neck tilting up when his lips move to suck on her throat, already wanting more.

More.

It doesn't take long before she's naked before him and he's naked before her. Cloud tosses his boxers to the floor as he unabashedly meets her eyes while she lies in wait. His hands could not stay away for even a minute, already taking hold of one breast as he positions himself above her while he takes a nipple into his mouth.

"Cloud."

A string of saliva goes over her scar in the middle of her chest as he focuses his attention on the other one.

"Cloud."

He bends her legs when he leans down to lick between her folds.

"Cloud..."

He groans when her fingers tighten over his hair when he buries his tongue inside her.

"Cloud!"

His fingers prolong her pleasure as she comes down from her high, pressing into her as her walls convulse around them.

It is so risque when she stares at him wantonly as he opens his bedside drawer and pulls the condoms out. There is a hint of mischief in her red orbs when she grins because it is quite scandalous of him to already be prepared to fuck her.

His cheeks feel warm when he settles the rubber over his cock, hand instinctively wrapping around to guide it inside her. Tifa arches her back towards him as he pushes in, hips tilting up with his support when he slides in to the hilt.

"Ahhhn."

It is a sound he has fantasized about too many times to count since he'd moved back in, but now, with her actually under him, moving her hips to his own when he starts a hard and fast pace, Cloud once again questions how he was able to be without this feeling. This intense feeling of connection when he gyrates into her. This indescribable pleasure of being wrapped around her moist warmth when he finds the sharp angle he remembers would become her undoing.

"Fuck."

She doesn't curse much, but it turns him on when she does.

"Fuck, Cloud, there, there... keep going."

She clenches her legs around his hips and jerks him even closer. He grabs a thigh and grips it tight enough to bruise as he uses it as leverage to fuck her more. Already seeing stars as he fights to reach that peak, but only with her. Only if she reaches it with him. He's nearly there so he helps her along and flicks her clit over and over until she tapers over the edge and comes when he finally drives deep enough to trigger his own release.

He wakes up to find her back pressed to his front, thinking that he must be dreaming for a moment.

But, when he leans over to breathe in her scent and buries his face in her hair, he remembers that no, this isn't a dream. They had made love last night.

So he lets his hand trace her stomach and draws her to him, waking her from her sleep.

She stretches her well-loved body and angles her bottom towards his limp member, coaxing it into full attention, reawakening his desire to be inside her again.

Cloud turns her onto her belly to take her from behind, hips resuming that hard and fast pace.

Fuck.

Honestly, he really doesn't know how he's been able to stay away.

They fall into that habit of acting like newlyweds. He wants to touch her all the time. And she lets him, playfully letting her fingers brush against his strong shoulders and biceps, teasing him when she presses lightly and blows softly on his neck. It's a careful seduction that they allow to run its course until they can no longer take it. And it comes to fruition three days after the first night they had sex again. He had been away for a day when he finds her in their room perusing through her drawer of underwear, muttering under her breath about doing laundry the next day. Her hair is damp with droplets of water alluringly sliding down her back, tracing the smoothness of her skin which he had not too long ago tasted with eagerness.

He awkwardly makes his presence known, and quickly excuses himself to take a shower.

A few minutes later though, he finds himself pinned to the bathroom tiles as he tries not to lose his footing when Tifa goes down on her knees to take him into her mouth.

"Welcome home Cloud."

He slides his fingers into her hair as his hips press forward out of instinct.

Welcome home, indeed.

Going down on her provides a unique kind of burning need in him. As he has her quivering in his arms, with her legs dangling off the edge of the bed while his mouth works on her, Cloud thinks that he doesn't mind if this is all he is doing tonight; lapping at her juices, tasting that sweet and tangy sap.

His hand finds hers, bringing their joined digits above her abdomen, feeling her muscles tighten, as he adds depth and speed to his tongue's movement until she can no longer remember her own name.

She holds her voice at the helm, and with two children a few doors away, they've been keeping quiet all this time. Still though, the way she bends towards his face, and the way she bunches the sheets of their bed, is enough to tell him that she's about to see bliss.

He can stay forever between her legs if she lets him.

But when she's satisfied and jaded from her third orgasm, he can't help but seek his own pleasure after all. So he makes sure that she is wet and ready for him when he pounds into her.

She's moving to her own pleasure, legs over his as she rides him lasciviously. His hand grabs her breast while the other holds her hips as he follows her lead.

There's nothing more beautiful than watching her face when she cums.

He can't seem to keep his hands off her.

First it happens once or twice a week, but lately he can't go a day without touching her.

He's fucking her on the kitchen counter, pants pulled down to his ankles while her shorts hang over one of her legs. She's leaning back with her hands gripping the marbled edge. His hold on her thighs is hard yet again as he widens her stance to drive deep into her.

He must be under some kind of spell.

Because as he watches his essence drip from her cunt he thinks that he wants her again.

Tifa Lockhart has always been his endgame.

When it comes to his story, a good chunk of it has inevitably led him back to her, to that moment years before when he had decided to leave his hometown to become a better person; one that can impress someone as good as her. Yet their bond is no longer centered on the promise they made under the stars, no longer dependent on him coming to her rescue as she once suggested with enthusiasm. In fact, it was her who did the rescuing most of the time.

It was never really just about that. She is his light. A luminescent being that beckons him home during times when he thinks that solitude is the only way. The voice in the dark that calls out to him even in the deep recesses of his mind because it is by her side he knows he belongs.

His future.

Tifa is his future.

He traces the wolf ring on her finger, subtly taking note of her size.

One day he'll make it official.

One day.

As the sun's rays settle over Edge, the city towards the east of Midgar where their story had began where it left off, Cloud thinks that he truly cannot imagine his life without her.

And he traces the road in his mind as he plans the route to Gongaga. Zack had once said that they made the best engagement rings.

Perhaps it is about time he went back there, too.

But for now, he wants to embrace her, head already filled with desire when she stirs from her sleep and playfully grabs hold of him, lithe body laying on her back as she wraps her arms around his neck while he settles over her.

"Good morning."

He drives straight in.

Ah.

He's home inside her.

Super Special Thank you to the Amazing Denebola Leo who is my first ever beta! Such an honor to have a talented writer such as you give your stamp of approval Dene. :D

First of all, I should be studying but I just loved reading all these awesome CloTi fics by MarleNadia, Denebola Leo, Senigata and SailorStarDust1. Second of all, I guess it's a must for a CloTi to write their take on how they become intimate again after ACC? And my oh my was it so fun. Third of all, Cloud Strife is hot, too hot man. They're both too hot. And Lastly, thank you for reading. ;)

R R

PS: "I believe" by the Jonas Brothers has this seductive beat to it and makes my heart flutter each time with its lyrics. I enjoyed listening to it while writing the adult scenes. Ehem.