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He hadn’t gotten on the gondola for shits and giggles. They were on a mission. A serious one. Aerith needed to realize that and stop being so … distracting.
Distracting. Fuck, was she.
She’d scooted her way closer, as she often did. He’d let her, for whatever reason. And now, they were—well, rather comfortable. She was warm and she smelled so sweet. Like all the flowers she liked to grow. Even in the heat they’d walked through to get there. It was like it hadn’t even touched her, not a speck of sweat or dirt sullying her aroma. He hoped she could say the same about him with the way she was cuddled so close, her silky hair falling over his shoulder. He dared not let his cheek touch it.
“I know you don’t much like this place, but still, it means a lot that you brought me here.”
“I didn’t have much choice.”
He felt Aerith’s laugh before it registered in his ears. A soft bounce of her shoulders, a quiet chime from her mouth. Like the wind chimes his mother had. They hung from the porch, playing notes of the wind. Aerith’s amusement was just as light, airy like her. You could feel it everywhere, brushing your skin like a lover’s caress. But it vanished just as fast.
“Still. I’m glad you decided to ride with me.”
Had he? Well … he guessed he could’ve gone with Tifa. Aerith’s gondola had just been closer, and the miles they’d walked had started to catch up with him. But, that wasn’t all that had drawn him into this metal cage with her …
“I wanted to—we wanted to keep you safe.”
That damn chuckle, this time the soft notes of a harp, begging to be plucked by skilled fingers. “I’m grateful. To all of you.”
A comfortable silence fell around them as they watched the fireworks. The gondola crawled higher into the sky, giving them a unique vantage point. When the doors opened, Aerith dragged him along to a play.
Loveless.
~
“Aerith!” Cloud called, holding the gondola doors open.
Her feet moved with haste, skipping as she danced her way through the crowd. It was enough. They’d had their fun. Too much of it. It had almost cost them their lives. Cost her her life. It was time to return to reality, the dangers at hand so she didn’t get—
“Cloud.” Aerith barreled into his chest.
His body went into overdrive, everywhere she touched, every place he felt her warmth, went hypersensitive. All he craved was more. More of her. More of this. Whatever this was.
Aerith pulled back just enough to search his eyes. Like emeralds, they sank into his mako-stained seas, traveling deeper and deeper until—
Aerith’s nose nudged his and he dove, stealing the kiss he’d been dreaming of for far too long. Just like he’d thought, her lips were pillowy, supple, like they’d never tasted dry air. And she was … skilled as she pressed into him for more. Cloud’s eyes rolled into the back of his head.
Cogs creaked to life, the heavy squeal of machinery rumbled, and the cart swung. Cloud stumbled, taking Aerith with him as he fell toward the door. When had it even shut?
His hands flattened against the metal wall, catching them both, still latched, still searching for some deeper sort of satisfaction.
Aerith was just as soft as she looked. Pinned between him and the door, her body was tender, giving against his hard shell, sharing its heat. And she was making these little sounds.
Shit.
They were even more beautiful than her laugh. And so … intimate. He wanted to hear more, make them louder. Could he?
As the gondola began a tediously slow descent over the canyon, Cloud took up Aerith’s bottom lip and sucked. How much time did he have to taste her? To tear his name from her throat?
Slender fingers crawled into his hair, and nothing had ever felt so good. The light scrape of her nails across his scalp, the way she paused to fist in his roots.
His tongue dove into her parted mouth, and he may as well have fallen into the lifestream. She was paradise, all the things that made it up. She was art designed by a master’s hand; she was a melody tuned to his soul; and she was pure, free of all the pollution destroying the planet.
And right now, she was his.
He never wanted to let go.
Aerith went onto her tiptoes, curling a leg around his hip, and the world fell out. The dance of their lips shifted from a waltz to a salsa, losing all propriety and structure. Their kisses were messy, smacking, and all-encompassing as their tongues warred, their mouths hungry for any sliver of flesh they could get at.
Cloud lapped at the places behind her teeth like a man desperate for water, for the healing nectar she exuded. He wanted it flooding the battle wounds still fresh on his heart, filling the holes in his head until he could remember nothing but her.
He yearned to drown in her.
“Cloud,” she sighed against his lips. All he could taste was her desperation.
Tearing from her mouth, Cloud paved a sloppy path down the flawless column of her throat. She curled around him, her arms looped lazily over his shoulders, her head lolled back for more.
He needed it too.
Pausing to rip his glove off with his teeth, Cloud tossed the thick leather aside before snaking his bare hand under her dress and along the underside of her thigh. Aerith gasped like he’d burned her, and for a second, he worried he might have. His whole body was hot, but his exposed fingers felt like matches catching and igniting against her skin.
He squeezed, her smoothness molding like dough in his hold. He wanted to fill both hands with her, lift her up and trap himself between her thighs. Would they be just as soft around his waist? Was she even softer between them?
His gut ached to find out.
Then the cart shook again.
Reluctantly, Cloud pulled back from Aerith to see her nose tipped pink, almost matching the flush across her cheeks, which was just a shade deeper. The gems in her eyes were sparkling, the small bud of her mouth was swollen, and fine strands were loose from her ponytail.
Shit. What did he look like?
Cloud almost didn’t notice that the ride had stopped when the door’s locks unlatched. Before either of them could say a word, the doors creaked opened.
“Did you have fun kids?” the operator asked.
“Uh…” Cloud was at a loss, his brain still hanging somewhere in the sky where everything was bliss and no one else existed.
“We sure did. Thank you.” Aerith easily fell back into place with the world, taking the operator’s offered hand and stepping out of their safe haven.
Cloud followed, feeling like he was watching himself go through the motions rather than making them.
“Thanks.” He managed to form a polite sentiment for the operator. Whether it sounded polite was a question for another day.
Like a dog on a leash, Cloud trailed after Aerith. It was impossible to lose her now. Her perfume had engrained itself in his lungs. He would be able to find her in any crowd, in the middle of this life-forsaken desert, in total darkness of the woods.
Reaching a clearing in the crowd, Aerith turned on him. And suddenly, faced with her, his confidence crumbled. What was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to say? After everything they’d just done …
“So …”
“So …” Aerith matched him, giggling at their perfect timing.
“That was … fun.” Cloud felt like an idiot as he scratched at the back of his head, the blond fibers tickling his fingers—wait!
Pulling his hand from his hair, he looked at his fingers, long and calloused and bare.
Bare.
“Shit. My glove.” He looked back at the gondola.
Aerith sauntered up, clasping his hand in both of hers and winding their fingers. It felt … nice. But their skin still simmered with leftover flames.
“Guess we’re going back.” The way she bit into her lip didn’t help to calm the smile pulling up at her mouth’s corners.
Cloud’s mouth twitched into a smirk, and all the tension fell away. “Guess so.”
With her hand in his, she weaved them back through the crowd toward the line for the gondolas. His heart hammered at the thought of getting back in, at the array of possibilities laid out before them.
It was a short wait, especially when Aerith went to the kind operator to work her magic. She explained the situation with ease, getting them the same gondola they’d nearly gone too far in.
When the doors reopened, it smelled overwhelmingly like her, but … headier.
Fishing for the cash in his back pocket, Cloud pressed it into the operator’s hand. “Give us extra time at the top?”
The graying man with a handlebar mustache nodded and ushered him on.
When the doors closed firmly behind him, Cloud faced the ancient holding his lost glove.
“Found it.” She smiled, but there was something else in her eyes. Something that beckoned him.
He felt entranced as he peeled off his other glove, letting it drop to the floor with a heavy slap.
Aerith wet her lips, sealing his undoing.
Cloud descended on her, taking up her face and kissing her for the first time all over again. It was frantic, desperate, like they’d never gotten interrupted.
Cloud led them, backing her toward the window this time, but she had other ideas. Aerith pushed against him, and he let her take him wherever she wanted to go. Which was apparently the little couch bolted to the floor.
He plopped down and died a little when she got on top of him, those supple legs straddling him, her warm center nestled so close to where he wanted it.
Both hands slid under her dress and along the toned outer edges of her thighs. She moaned in that pretty way he was determined to turn feral, and brought her mouth to his.
Their teeth clashed. He didn’t care. He devoured her, matching every press, every lick with one of his own until he’d become one with the fireworks exploding just outside the glass.