Tifa's eyes flew open, and along with the sudden awakening there came an unwelcome dull pain to her chest. Her lower lip shook slightly, and her wine-colored eyes stared up at the ceiling, bleached white in the moonlight that shone through the window, imagining the endless stars beyond it.

Her dream had been... well, different, to say the least. Her hands rested lightly on the other pair, the larger, slightly calloused pair that wrapped around her waist. Even now, she felt him shift slightly.

"Something wrong?" he breathed in her ear, almost inaudibly.

"No, Cloud," she whispered in a hushed tone. "I... I'm fine. Just had a bad dream, that's... that's all." The rapid beating of her heart sounded loud in her own ears, and she felt Cloud move his face up over her neck. His lips rested gently against her neck, and he paused.

"Tifa, your heart is racing."

But she shook her head slightly, shrinking back into his embrace under the blankets. Her back seemed to mold against his front, and she shivered.

"It was just a bad dream. Go back to sleep."

Cloud finally opened his eyes, that beautiful, calming cerulean under his pale gold hair, and studied her. But her face was turned away from him, and her wine-colored eyes were troubled. His brows came down a bit over his eyes, and he just wordlessly pulled her a little closer to him. He nestled his face again just over her shoulder, lightly pressing his cheek against hers. But Tifa lay awake, her arms wrapped around Cloud's, and couldn't return to sleep.

Her heart was physically aching. Her cinnamon gaze flickered to her fighting gloves, which lay within reach on the bedside table, and closed her eyes briefly in pain at the memory of her dream.

Tifa had been cornered by an evil man, a man with silver hair and cold, hard, icy jade eyes. He'd had a contemptuous look on his sneering face as he pointed a long, thin, terrifying katana straight at the center of her head, and she had been able to do nothing. He had beaten her beyond healing, but she was still horribly aware of what was going on. And then Cloud had leaped in front of her with his huge sword, trying to cut at the man, slicing bullets from doubles of the silver-haired man away from him. He hadn't moved from his position in front of her.

But then another man, also with jade eyes, dropped down behind Cloud, and stabbed him in the back, the silver sword going clear through him. He had fallen to the ground, his normally calm blue eyes pleading and painful...

And then Tifa's love had passed into the Lifestream.

She had screamed, feeling as though her heart were being torn out of her chest, and then had woken to find a remnant of that pain coursing through her. Sighing lightly, she turned to her other side within Cloud's arms, coming face to face with him. She tucked her head under his chin, snuggling in closer to his broad chest and the warmth in him that never seemed to fade. His arms just tightened reflexively around her in response, and Tifa lay awake while Cloud slept as the moonlight faded, giving way to a blood-red dawn.