A/N: Back again. Summer school started a week ago and man, does it go by fast. I'm already behind on reading and pulled a quasi-all-nighter to finish a paper. Lovely. Thanks so much for the support last chapter! I'm trying to be more faithful in updating, but my inspiration tends to strike in waves. That's probably why I don't think I'll ever make it as a professional writer. Lol.

Anyhow, more humor, less guilt, and just a dash of mystery. Enjoy!!

IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

Chapter Ten

It proved exceedingly uncomfortable for Cloud to once again step into the organized chaos that was Wall Market. Granted, it was probably quite natural considering the last time he was here, he'd been running around looking for cross-dressing items. He repressed a shiver of horror at the memory.

Tifa came up close behind him, sensing his quiet distress. "Are you okay?"

His jaw tightened as he tried to ignore the warmth emanating from her body. "I'm fine." He frowned when it came out too harsh and then added, "Don't exactly have the best memories here."

Hers brows knit in confusion for a moment before her eyes widened considerably. He almost wished he hadn't said anything when he saw the teasing grin spread across her lips, but he relaxed when he realized that he'd rather have her laugh at him than to go on brooding like she had since the night before. Brooding was his job after all.

"I doubt this is any consolation, but you were quite pretty."

He frowned at her. "I don't like being described as pretty."

She smirked. "But you were."

His frown turned into a glare, though it very nearly twisted into a small smile when Tifa broke into soft giggles. Something inside him forgot to be indignant when he saw the genuine laughter dance behind her claret eyes.

They went to the Honey Bee Inn first ("What were you doing here?" "You don't want to know." "…I'm sure.") to retrieve Cloud's gear, most importantly his sword, where he had left it upon infiltrating Don Corneo's mansion. The katana, useful and practical as it had been, was nowhere near as powerful as his Buster sword and it felt good to have his weapon of choice back in his hands.

"What now?" Barret grunted.

"We should go to the old man at the weapon shop. I remember he always sells a bunch of junk he picks up from around the area. I'm sure he'll know something."

Agreeing, they headed for the north end of Wall Market. Before they entered the weapon shop, however, a group of pubescent teenagers started an excited commotion as they ran out to the alley next to Don Corneo's mansion (Cloud's skin still crawled when he saw the building).

Glancing at each other briefly, they followed the kids into the alley.

"Jackpot…" murmured Tifa as she eyed the copper pipe that led up and up and up. It was dangerous and probably insane, but it was still a way to the top of the Plate, thin and unstable as it may be.

Cloud's eyebrows went up slightly. "Seriously?"

Barret let out a rumbling laugh, his glee a little too evident at having found a way up. "Why not? Don't tell me your spiky ass is scared of heights?"

"No, but we don't even know where that thing leads."

"Maybe not, but we do know it goes up. An' that's good enough for me 'cause it looks like a shiny wire of hope to me."

The analogy (could it even be considered one?) was pretty bad, but Cloud supposed it was as good an opportunity as any. He glanced at Tifa who gave him a small, amused shrug, though the anticipation of a challenge sparkling in her eyes was impossible to miss. With a sigh, he conceded. "Alright, but I sure as hell am not going up behind Barret. I don't want to be in the way when he falls."

Barret growled his response, but Cloud ignored him as he wrapped his hands firmly around the pipe and hooked his ankles around it. It was going to be a long way up.

…

Rufus Shinra straightened out the invisible wrinkles in his immaculate white suit before pushing the doors open to his father's office. Despite himself, he was nervous. Their relationship in recent years had steadily grown distant and while Rufus could not condone much of what his father did to build his empire, he could still remember days when he had been a good man, a good father. And there would always be that part of him that just wanted to make his old man proud.

With a mental shake of his head, he hardened his eyes and schooled his expression into one of cold indifference. This was the façade he'd adopted when his father started drifting from noble intentions and this is the façade he will wear when he carries on the Shinra heritage. Fake, yes. But so was the legacy he represented.

He stopped several feet away from the imposing u-shaped desk, briefly wondering when the last time was that they'd stood closer than five feet from each other, aside from the necessity of proximity when conducting press conferences and cocktail parties. It didn't surprise him when he couldn't remember.

"You called for me, Father?"

The senior Shinra looked up from the thick stack of paperwork hiding his desk and Rufus was surprised to see the faintest hints of a fond smile playing at his lips. "Ah, Rufus. Yes, yes. Have a seat, son."

Rufus' skin pricked. Joseph Shinra rarely called him "son." Something was wrong; he could feel it in his bones.

Shinra eyed Rufus' hesitation, and his smile grew somewhat bitter and, if Rufus didn't know better, almost sad. "We haven't talked in a long time, have we?"

A fine brow went up as Rufus carefully responded, "No. We haven't."

"If nothing else, I—I am sorry I have not been a good father to you."

Rufus frowned. It sounded too much like Shinra was giving out last wishes or something foolishly ill-omened like that. "You have an empire to maintain. I…am but a small part of that."

Shinra stood up and walked around the desk to place heavy hands on Rufus' shoulders. "No, Rufus. I was blinded by power. I forgot the grounds on which this company was founded. And now it is too late."

"What…do you mean?"

For the briefest moment, Rufus could have sworn he saw regret flash within bright blue eyes, but it was gone as quickly as it came, nothing but a fleeting phantom. "He is alive."

"Who is?"

"A boy whose presence is a constant reminder that my life is not my own."

The furrow of the lines on Rufus' forehead deepened. "You speak in riddles."

Shinra laughed, but it was empty and humorless. "Do I? Perhaps." He turned away and suddenly the warm, fatherly figure disappeared again and the ruthless businessman turned empire builder was back. "It is late."

Rufus trained his confusion to go away and he held his head high. That was his cue to leave. "Good night, Father."

Just before he stepped out the door, Shinra left him with one more piece of information to process. "I am proud of you, son."

Not really knowing what to say in response, Rufus merely nodded and closed the door behind him. Even now, Joseph Shinra was a mystery to him.

…

Cloud could die a happy man if he never saw another step for the rest of his life. He gave up trying to keep track of how many flights they'd already climbed in the seemingly perpetual onslaught of stairs that made the Shinra tower the tallest building in the world, and focused his attention instead on controlling his breathing and the constant pump of his legs as he ran. While this was far from the most rigorous challenge he'd ever encountered, it certainly neared the top of his list of the most tedious ones. He glanced back, noting with some surprise that Tifa was only about half a flight behind him and Barret probably another flight behind her. He couldn't see where the big man was, but he could sure hear his complaints drifting up and echoing off the walls of the stairwell.

(Cloud thought he heard him mumbling to himself something about how he wanted to at least see Marlene one last time before he died from running up stairs, but he really couldn't be sure.)

Not for the first time, he thanked the arrogance (or maybe oversight) of Shinra that they didn't plant cameras in the emergency escape. Thanks to a code scrambler (a piece of technology that Jessie in her brilliance had developed, Tifa explained in a low and sorrowful tone edged with bitterness) that deactivated the alarm system long enough for them to slip into the building, they had been able to infiltrate Shinra headquarters without making a ruckus, at least for now.

Barret was still disgruntled that they hadn't simply broken in through the front doors, but had reluctantly ceded to the wisdom of not creating such commotion until they successfully rescued Aeris.

Though…as he looked up to find no visible end to the stairs, Cloud was almost inclined to think that maybe going through the front doors wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"Are we there yet?" Barret's voice floated up to his ears.

"Not yet," was Tifa's ground out response.

There were a couple minutes of silence before "Are we there now?"

"No! And we're not going to be there in another two minutes either!"

Cloud almost chuckled to himself. He had to admit that an annoyed Tifa, rare as it was, proved to be highly amusing. It made their interaction more human, more normal. And for a reason he has yet to fully comprehend, normal human interaction meant a lot to him.

…

Blink.

Normal? What does it mean to be normal?

Blink.

What would you know about being normal?

Blink.

You've never been – never will be normal.

Blink.

"I always knew I was different, but this? No...Not like this."

…

"We're here." His voice was level, and Tifa and Barret could only stare at him in awe. Both of them heaving heavy breaths and trying to pull as much oxygen from the air as possible after running up the full fifty-nine flights of stairs. Yet, there he was, Cloud Strife, ex-SOLDIER turned mercenary, standing casually next to the door as if he'd just come back from a pleasant stroll.

"Damn. What the hell did they do to you people? Are you SOLDIERS even human anymore?" gasped out Barret when he'd regained enough of his breath to speak in relatively comprehensible sentences again.

Tifa could have almost sworn that she'd seen the man in question flinch ever so slightly at the comment, but it was quite nearly impossible to tell with him. She changed the subject to the situation at hand. "What do we do now?"

"Every floor from the sixtieth and above is restricted to certain personnel only. We'll need to get keycards to get any higher. That's probably where they have Aeris."

"You sure know a lot about this place," commented Barret, a suspicious lilt in his voice.

"I used to report here for duty back when I was in SOLDIER." His tone was bored and flippant, making it extremely clear that he wasn't compelled to explain himself to the big man, but only did so to get him off his case.

Barret grunted in response. "An' how exactly are we suppos'ta getta hold of these keycards? You make it sound like we can jus' walk up to somebody n' expect 'em to hand it to us no questions asked."

Cloud shrugged, but three floors up saw Barret elevated into prophet-status.

Obtaining the keycard to gain access to the sixtieth floor had been as simple as knocking out the handful of guards stationed by the glass elevators and making it to the sixty-first floor had been even easier. It was all a matter of manipulating the surroundings to one's benefit as they snuck past the roaming security guards, and the door to the set of stairs threading the floors above the sixtieth had been fortuitously unlocked.

Much to Tifa's amusement, acquiring the keycard to unlimited access above the sixty-second floor was as easy as Barret had scoffed. That and the fact that Cloud was apparently too attractive to deny.

The sixty-first floor was something of an employee lounge where Shinra's army of pencil pushers weary of every dreary nine-to-five day roamed the halls, most of them seeking out the smoking rooms to relieve the stress of their monotonous lives.

They'd automatically decided that Barret needed to wait in the stairwell, his gun-arm too much of a giveaway, and while Tifa appeared nonthreatening enough, her choice of apparel didn't mesh well with the formal business-wear everyone else was in. Thus it left Cloud—on the pretense of being a repairman—to try to procure a keycard. And so it was that Cloud suddenly found himself eyed at hungrily by one of those utterly bored, middle-aged female employees that he'd stumbled across.

He swallowed the uncomfortable feeling in his throat and mumbled his spiel about needing access to the floors above to do his repairs, all the while wondering if the woman heard anything considering she seemed preoccupied drooling at the hard muscles of his exposed arms and tracing the lines to where, regrettably, his sleeveless top hid the rest of his torso from her wandering eyes.

The woman nodded noncommittally before unclipping the keycard from her jacket. "I see," she drawled while slipping the card into Cloud's pant pocket. Cloud stiffened when her hand lingered there far too long for his comfort and it took much of his self-control to refrain from squeaking when she pinched the tight flesh of his bottom. "So will you be free after you get your repairs done? 'cause I think I'm going to be free a while."

Her eyes spoke lust as she let her hand trail across his chest in what was supposed to be a seductive manner. Cloud shuddered with disgust; he just wanted to get out of there. "Uh…maybe later," he muttered before all but running back to the stairwell where Tifa and Barret hid.

By the time he made it back to them, he'd managed to get the shaking down to a minimum but he couldn't completely expel the feeling that he'd just been grossly violated. When he saw the sparkling laughter dancing in Tifa's eyes, he knew that she'd seen everything.

Eyes completely serious, Cloud stated blandly, "I think I've just been molested."

Tifa broke out in giggles and even Barret had to cough to hide his snicker before saying, "At least you got the keycard. Way to take one for the team, Spiky."

Cloud glared at him, but Barret had already turned to go up the stairs. Making to follow him, he froze when he felt Tifa's hot breath suddenly sear the sensitive flesh behind his ear, the heat of her body pulsing beside him, warming him even though they weren't quite touching. "So, will you be free after you get your repairs done? 'cause I think I'm going to be free for a while."

She was teasing him for the incident with the Shinra employee, he knew, but his reaction to her nearness was not funny in the least. His mouth dried when her lips got close enough to his neck that he only needed to shift ever so slightly for her lips to caress the tingling flesh over his pulse point. His fingers itched to tangle themselves in the silky length of hair that was currently tickling the bare skin of his arm even as he curled his hands into tight fists to keep from doing just that.

She pulled back with a sudden laugh, though he could hear the forceful edge to it, almost as if she'd also just realized she'd done and was trying to cover her awkwardness with by brushing it aside with sheepish laughter. It was probably exactly what she was doing actually. "Sorry. I just—" Her pale face erupted in a bloom of cherry blossoms. "Sorry."

With another nervous chuckle and an embarrassed apologetic look, she ascended the stairs—more damn stairs—and left him to his thoughts. When he began climbing after her, he noticed that his limbs were shaking again. Only this time, it was for a completely different reason. He couldn't decide if it scared him or thrilled him more.

…

I am an idiot. A stupid stupid stupid idiot!

Tifa didn't know what had possessed her to do something so, so—she didn't even know what to call it other than will-never-be-able-to-look-him-in-the-eye-again stupidity—but she was certainly feeling the part of a fool now. She'd found that Cloud was irresistibly adorable when embarrassed and that light sheen of red that had painted his cheeks made him look so much younger, so much more like the little boy she'd once known that she'd wanted to keep it there for just a little longer. And the only way she could think of doing that at the time was to tease him.

She hadn't meant to tease him quite like that though.

Face flaming, she cast her eyes to the steps in front of her when the unsettling memory of Cloud's slight shuddering and suddenly hitched breathing raced to the front of her head, the image so vivid that it was almost as if she were seeing it played before her very eyes again. And again.

Tifa Lockhart was no fool. She knew that she was attractive—as was confirmed by the number of Seventh Heaven customers she'd had to strongly discourage from touching her—and she knew what it meant when a man started displaying the same symptoms that Cloud did at first. Perhaps on one level she was gratified to know that she could affect him—yes, even him—in such a way, but the far larger, more principled part of her resented herself for eliciting his lust when what she really wanted his respect.

Great job, Tifa, acting like the tramp that he probably thinks you are, she thought bitterly to herself.

She chanced a glance back at Cloud who looked like he'd fully reverted to his cold-blooded ways. Well, at least he was mature enough to let the incident go graciously.

Feeling like a walking pile of contradictions, she absolutely refused to wonder why she felt so disappointed by that.

Thank you to: Alialka, vx-Luna-xv, Fairheartstrife, Binkledup, Biskitty, SrgntDrew, Seelenspiel, mom calling

Sorry about being awful about getting around to reviewer responses. I just want you all to know that I really do appreciate your taking the time to review though! Thanks for all your input, whether it be praise, constructive criticism or anything else. It makes me a better writer knowing what I do well and what I don't do so well. :)