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Aerith flopped backwards onto the lush grass of the Junon fields.
"I need a break!" She complained loudly, "we've been walking for hours!"
Cloud rolled his eyes and spun on his heel to regard her dramatic self laid out on the ground.
"Junon isn't that far. Just keep walking and we'll get there faster," he said, with exasperation in his voice. He looked to his other companions in the hope of some support but Red XIII was already stretching from paw to tail and spreading himself out beside Aerith. Barret stomped the grass down to make somewhere to sit and then pulled open his bag to look for their rations.
Cloud looked to Tifa, endlessly supportive Tifa, who gave him a small shrug and an apologetic smile and sat cross-legged beside Aerith.
So much for his carefully calculated schedule. It would be early evening by the time they reached Junon now, at the earliest, all because some people couldn't just walk. It hadn't even been that long either! They'd only been walking for 4 or 5 hours, that wasn't so bad…
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in through his nose, held it, counted to 3, and then released it slowly. He was travelling with civilians, they didn't have his military experience. He needed to be patient with them.
That didn't mean he needed to be happy about it though. With a huff, he turned away from them, sat down, and prepared to clean his sword. Might as well do something useful while he waited.
Tifa looked over to Cloud, sitting with his back to the rest of the group, tense shoulders shifting as he fumbled in his bag.
She turned back to Aerith who was still splayed out, playing with some grass and humming to herself. Tifa fiddled with the end of her ponytail and then said, "Hey Aerith? I think Cloud's pretty mad."
Aerith flipped her wrist in a dismissive gesture, a laugh bubbling from her lips, barely sparing a glance at the blond.
"Don't worry, Tifa, he's always got a bug up his butt about something. We needed a rest, he was being stubborn." Suddenly, her face lit up with a smile and she grasped Tifa's hand, "do you know how to make daisy chains?"
Tifa, sure she had just received whiplash from the turn in conversation, could only nod in bewilderment. Daisy chains?
Aerith bounced up, dragging Tifa along with her to a little patch of grass that was thick with daisies. Tifa hadn't even seen the tiny meadow even though they'd walked right by it, and could only chalk it up to Aerith's innate connection to the planet and particular love of plants that she'd noticed. Grinning at Tifa, green eyes sparkling, she began to gather them in her hands, and Tifa began to do the same until their hands were full and they held out Aerith's dress as a make-shift basket. Satisfied with their collection, they headed back to the group
By the time they returned, Barret and Red XIII were watching them curiously as they sat carefully and laid their haul on the ground in front of them.
"So, Tifa, how do you make daisy chains?" Aerith asked brightly.
Tifa turned with wide eyes, "you don't know?"
Aerith's smile dimmed a little and she shrugged slightly, "never had anyone to teach me."
A silence settled over the group until Tifa grasped Aerith's hand in hers and squeezed.
Scarlet met emerald as Tifa tried to put all of the affection, understanding, and promise she could into her words.
"I'll teach you, okay?"
Aerith's eyes watered a little even as she giggled and nodded. Despite her expertise as a gardener, her daisy chain skills had a lot to be desired and Red XIII and Barret ended up wearing very loose and lopsided chains around their heads that threatened to fall apart at any moment. Tifa wrapped daisies around Aerith's ribbon and tucked them into her braid, and when they ran out, Barret demonstrated as best he could how to make a grass whistle, and they all laughed when Tifa made such a loud noise that Red XIII covered his ears.
Throughout all of their fun, Cloud sat and faced away, and Tifa couldn't help but be reminded of the boy from her youth, segregating himself away from everyone.
It was then that Tifa had an idea and excused herself from the group.
They were all having fun. So much laughter and giggling and joy. He wasn't included though.
You never are and you never will be.
Cloud's hand tightened into a fist as the thought flitted through his mind. It couldn't be true. He was a First Class. Why wouldn't he be included? Why wouldn't he be wanted? Still, as Tifa giggled loudly at something Barret had said, that hollow in his chest stretched wider and dug a little deeper.
He could turn around and join in, make the effort… but what if they didn't want him there? What if they hadn't asked him to join because they didn't want him to? He didn't want them to say yes out of pity and then resent him the whole time.
He'd been a dick, he wouldn't want him around either.
His thoughts chased themselves in circles as he slowly honed and cleaned and polished the Buster sword. It wasn't until he noticed the absence of laughter behind him that he realised the sun was setting. They must've been sitting in that same damn field for hours.
Hours of them laughing and him brooding like an angsty teenager. Wonderful.
Cloud slid the sword off his lap and stretched his arms over his head, feeling his back crack pleasantly. A quiet noise to his left made him turn to see Tifa, bending towards him with her hands behind her back.
"Hey," she smiled.
The fading light of the sun lit her up in oranges and reds, and for a moment he was awestruck by the way it outlined her curves and the movement of her long ebony hair as it slid over her shoulder.
"Can I join you?"
He nodded and shuffled over slightly so she would have more room, only to realise they were outdoors and she had all the room on the planet.
However, Tifa stood still and hesitated, shifting from foot to foot, and then started speaking in a rush.
"So, uhm, I guess you were busy with your sword, but Aerith wanted us to make daisy chains, and since you missed it, I thought…" Tifa pulled her hands out from behind her back to show they were piled high with daisies, "I thought you might like a go."
Cloud frowned, which was apparently the wrong reaction, as Tifa's face fell and she took a little step back, beginning to shake her head.
"Sorry, it was a dumb idea, I'll just—"
He reached forward and grabbed her wrist quickly before she left.
"No, it's not. I was just surprised. Daisy chains?" He said, a little smile edging his lips as he raised an eyebrow at the peculiar topic.
Tifa laughed and stepped closer again, much to his relief.
"I was too," Tifa said as she sat down beside him, their knees just brushing as she mimicked his cross-legged position and dropped the flowers between them. He hoped the fading light hid the warmth that flooded his cheeks at the fleeting touch. "So, do you know how to make them?"
He sent her a mildly affronted look.
"Of course I do." Then added with a smirk, "I seem to remember I was better at them than you."
Tifa snorted, a sound that had him biting his lip against a grin, "in your dreams."
They sat quietly and started weaving, and Cloud found himself half focusing on his task and half watching the way Tifa's fingers deftly folded the stems, in admiration of her precision and grace. His own chain was looking far less elegant.
He scowled and began pulling his gloves off, their thick leather interfering with the delicacy required for such a job.
Tifa huffed a laugh beside him, her unsaid tease in the air, and he nudged her with his knee. She laughed out loud and pride at the sound swelled through him. A pleased smile fought its way onto his face and he hid it behind his hair. He loved making her laugh.
The flowers were a lot more cooperative this time and he was pleased to find that his daisy making skills had not diminished.
"Yeah, I'm better than you," he commented as he held up his completed chain, inspecting it for flaws.
Tifa, who started before him but still hadn't finished, frowned down at her chain but said nothing. He noticed that despite her making them all day, she didn't have one for herself, and he tied the ends of his together, "Hey, turn around."
She lifted her head to look at him and he gently placed it on her hair, shifting it slightly so it wouldn't slide off.
"Crown fit for a princess," he smirked.
Cloud relished in her wide eyes and the pink that lit up her cheeks. Silence settled between them for long enough that he started to regret what he'd said, before a beatific smile lit her face and she reached up to touch where it lay amongst the dark strands.
"Thank you, Cloud," she said softly.
He rubbed the back of his head and shrugged, "Don't mention it." Embarrassment surging at her continued smiling, he nodded down at her chain, "I can see why it took all day if this is how fast you go."
Her smile disappeared and she glared, although he could still see it teasing the edges of her lips.
"Well, if someone hadn't been in a huff all day, maybe it would've gone faster."
Shit, he'd walked right into that one, and worse, she was right. Cloud opened and closed his mouth, before sighing.
"Sorry."
Tifa shifted her eyes back down to her fingers and shrugged, "it's fine. There's nothing wrong with taking a break though, okay?"
Cloud hummed noncommittally and pulled a knee up to rest his arm on it. How could he explain that he needed to reach Sephiroth? Needed it like he needed air? That every moment he knew Sephiroth was out there, getting stronger and getting ready, was like shards of glass ripping through his veins? He couldn't… exist knowing that madman was out there.
"Done!" Tifa said with a flourish, breaking him from his morose thoughts. She sat up on her knees and shuffled around to face him. Gesturing for him to lift his arm, she wound her daisy chain twice around the bandages above his bracer. She pulled and twisted it until all the flowers were facing out and it was sitting as nicely as it could and then tied it off and tucked what was left.
Cloud watched her with a fond smile playing on his lips, the intensity in her ruby eyes and the concentration in the tiny wrinkles that formed on her forehead reminding him of summer days and the smell of mountain air.
Eventually she sat back with a nod to herself, evidently pleased with her work, and he lowered his arm.
"I would've made you a crown too, but I don't think it would fit over your hair," she teased, a playful look in her eyes. Cloud frowned and reached up to touch his hair self-consciously. There was nothing wrong with his hair. It was cool.
Almost as if she could read his thoughts, she rolled her eyes, "do you like it?"
Realising she meant her wrapping skills and not his hair, he nodded and gave a little shy quirk of his lips.
"I do. Thank you."
Tifa beamed back and then clapped her hands together.
"C'mon, we should help the others set up camp. It's too late to start moving again and who knows who we might run into."
She stood and held out her hand to him and he grasped it and let her pull him to his feet. His hands, still without gloves, brushed against her bare fingers and the sensation fluttered through him and calmed the raging, boiling, crashing storm in his head.
Reaching over to him again for one last fiddle with his new accessory and flashing him a grin, she walked off to help Aerith with her tent. Cloud reached down to finger the petals on his daisy chain, his skin still buzzing with the memory of her touch, and the vision of her joy still bright behind his eyes from when he crowned her.
Yeah, maybe taking a break wasn't such a bad idea after all.