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The humid, heavy air of the Gongaga jungle presses down on Aerith’s head, her shoulders, flat against her chest like a physical weight that only intensifies when she tries to take a breath. She slips out of her jacket as soon as they reach the village, clear of the thick, dense tree cover that harbors endless swarms of mosquitoes. Although the air is still, some floating pockets of cool that cling to the shade and around the buildings of the village manage to touch her sweaty shoulders. She lifts her hair from her back as they stand in the shadow of the item shop where the rest of the party replenishes their stores, sighing as the momentary break from the sun gives her face and neck a little respite.
Beside her, close enough to touch, Cloud stares at the thick and neatly cut grass at his feet. Sweat glistens along his hairline and over his upper lip. His shoulders are a little pink, the beginning of sunburn looming over his more tan than usual skin. He’s still wearing his thick gloves.
“I don’t know how you’re breathing right now,” she says. “I feel out of breath just standing here, and I’m only wearing this dress.”
He glances at her for just a moment, his gaze barely flickering toward her, before he stares back down at his shoes. “It’s humid,” he says neutrally.
“You’re allowed to complain, you know. I definitely will.”
He looks at her again, and this time his gaze lingers on her bare shoulders. “It’s hot and humid,” he says, crossing his arms.
“At least take your gloves off,” she pleads. “Seeing you in full armor in this heat is making me hotter.”
He purses his lips, as though thinking about it. After a beat, he starts tugging at his gloves one finger at a time. When he gets to the metal reinforcement on his right glove, she loses patience and grabs his hand.
“Be careful with that,” he says sharply. “It’s the only pair I have.”
“Alright, I will.” She pulls his glove off and holds his hand on her palm, keeping her fingers spread so she isn’t touching him too much, allowing what meager air movement there is around them to circulate over his fingers.
He sighs. “That feels a little better.”
His hand shifts over hers, his ungloved skin moving against her palm, sending shivers over her, raising conspicuous goosebumps that would normally be covered by her jacket. His eyes drop to her arms. He takes half a step closer to her, further under the shadow of the item shop. With his hands bare, he seems almost naked to her, and the thought makes the thick air around them feel even thicker.
“You know what would feel even better?” she says. “A bath. Or at least a dip in some cool water. Actually, I won’t be picky, I could just use a cold shower.”
“Me too.” He looks down at their still joined hands. After a beat, he takes his hand back.
The door to the item shop opens with the trilling of a bell. Cloud takes a big step back as the rest of the party emerges into the heavy afternoon air. He keeps his hands at his side but Aerith thinks she sees them twitch toward her, a quick movement but movement all the same.
.
Night offers a little relief from the relentless sun but its heat remains in the air, hovering, suffocating. She sits outside of the house where they’ve all crammed in, testing the hospitality of their host, blankets spread over every empty surface they could find. Too many people in one house without power, the only way to circulate air through open windows, and not nearly enough cool air sneaking through despite the absence of the sun. She lifts her hair from around her face and looks up, at the multitude of stars smeared across the sky like spread on her breakfast toast.
Beside her, leaning against the wall of the house, Cloud’s arms are crossed, and he’s still gloveless.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep in this heat,” she says.
“Need you rested,” he says with a frown.
“I know, but I can barely breathe! The situation is dire, I’m afraid.”
He turns to face her, leaning one shoulder against the wall of the house. “What can I do?” he asks her.
She pretends to think about it. “Maybe… find me a body of water to jump into?”
His gaze drops again, to her shoulders. “Did you bring your swimsuit with you? I didn’t see you pack it.”
“I’ll figure that part out,” she says hurriedly, before he can change his mind. “So, are we going? Or am I going alone?”
He looks back up at her face. His eyes seem to glow in the dark. “Fine. Follow me.”
.
The darkness of the jungle is almost complete, broken now and then by the pale light of the full moon filtering down through the thick cover of trees around them. At night, the place looks different, and Aerith can only follow the beacon of Cloud’s pale hair as he walks ahead of her, seemingly carving a path through the foliage to a place he had seen earlier in the day, although how he can reconcile the bright sunny jungle with this dark tangle of green Aerith can’t say. He leads her with a straight back, his sword hanging from its holster between his shoulder blades, a thick metal barrier between them.
He slows to a stop before a small clearing, a break in the thick trees, right before a tiny lake fed by a flowing stream of water pulling from some hill a little further up. Somewhere around them, she hears the telltale flow of a waterfall. The water moves with a light current that sets small waves lapping against the edge of the lake. She kneels and dips her fingers into the water. Cool enough. Frigid when compared to the heavy air that surrounds them. She sighs in relief, and immediately starts taking off her shoes.
He watches her silently. She takes off both shoes and sets them neatly beside her, then both socks and tucks them into her shoes. Finally, she can dip her feet into the cool water and sighs so deeply that her lungs feel on the edge of collapse.
“Oh, Cloud,” she says, leaning back on her palms. “This is great. Come, sit with me.”
He looks around at the empty clearing. The jungle is quiet at night. The sound of the odd bug screaming, the rustling of leaves through some unfelt breeze reaches them over the slow churning of the water. He takes his sword from its holster and places it on the ground, then sits beside her.
“Take your shoes off,” she tells him.
“So I can fight barefoot against whatever creature crawls out of the trees?” he shoots back.
She laughs. “At least we won’t die hot, then.”
He smiles just a little at that. “Okay, just be ready to fight if we need to.”
He has a process for taking off his heavy military boots. Laces and buckles give way under his bare hands. She watches his fingers move with practiced ease, the flash of pale skin normally covered by his gloves. Once he’s slipped his socks off and shoved them into his boots, he inches closer to her. His body relaxes as his feet touch the water. She nudges him playfully with her elbow. He nudges her back, and his body lingers close to hers.
“This is nice,” he says slowly, like the words are being dragged out of him.
Her body has reached equilibrium, the water as cool as her feet, as hot as the rest of her. She gets to her feet. He looks up at her, warily.
“What now?” he says.
“I’m going for a dip,” she tells him.
His eyes narrow, searching her face. “You don’t have a swim suit.”
“I’ll just go in my underwear. Close your eyes.”
“Aerith,” he says sharply, but she’s already dropped the straps of her dress. He quickly averts his gaze, ducking his head.
Her dress drops to the floor, bunching up by the edge of the water. Even in her underwear, the barely stirring air doesn’t move the beads of sweat that cling to her body, on her chest, at the back of her neck. She steps into the water, lifting the end of her ponytail and tucking it into the ribbon near the base of her skull, creating a messy, loopy bun. Glancing behind her as she steps further into the water, she sees Cloud’s face is pink, his eyes focused on his feet. With a little distance, she suddenly realizes how big this moment is, his hands bare, his feet in the water, his sword sitting beside him on the grass. Even back at the beach, he still had his sword strapped to his body. He looks smaller now, more human.
She walks into the lake until the water reaches up to the curve of her breasts, then she turns around. “Okay, your turn,” she says.
He looks up. His eyes immediately drop to her chest, right where the water line ends. “I don’t think so,” he says.
She sinks a little deeper in the water, until it covers her shoulders. Her feet sift through the silty earth at the bottom of the lake. A sigh of relief breaks past her lips. It’s the first time she’s felt anything other than uncomfortably hot since they arrived in the jungle.
“The sooner you come in here and cool off, the sooner we can go back to the house,” she says.
He closes his eyes, purses his lips. He gets the same bracing expression when he’s readying himself for a difficult fight. Aerith holds back a smile. Finally, he gets to his feet and starts unbuckling his belt.
“Should I look away?” she asks.
“If I said yes, would you?”
“Hmm.” She taps her chin with a wet finger. “Maybe. If you say please.”
He doesn’t say anything, just lowers his baggy pants, revealing his matching black boxers. His shirt comes off next, both items folded neatly and set down by her discarded dress. She’s seen his body like this before, in the sparking and clear sunlight of the beach, but seeing him in the dark alone sends a thrill through her. His muscles shift under his skin as he makes his way over, stepping deeper into the water, until he’s close enough for her to reach out and touch.
“Isn’t that nice?” she asks.
His shoulders lose their rigidity. He looks up at the full moon and nods. “Yeah. Nice.”
“I’ve always wanted to swim, especially at night.” She doesn’t like casting her mind back home, to the small creek that managed to flow before her house under the everlasting shadow of the plate, but something makes her talk about it anyway. “You’re a good swimmer, right?”
“I can swim,” he says.
“Maybe I should’ve been a SOLDIER. They taught you so much. There’s so much for me to learn.”
“I already knew how to swim before I became a SOLDIER,” he says.
Aerith stays quiet, her lips pressed together, waiting for him to reveal more. And maybe it’s the water, cooling him, nudging more information out of him, but he speaks quietly, and she listens eagerly.
“Niebelheim is surrounded by water, oceans and rivers. Had to learn how to swim early. Otherwise you could fall in and just drown. If I’d waited until I was a SOLDIER to learn, I wouldn’t have made it out of that town alive.” His hand touches hers under the water. “Stay close. This lake could be deeper than it looks.”
He doesn’t move his hand away. She can’t see under the water in the dark, and somehow not being able to see his hand on her gives his touch a secretive feeling, like a whisper.
“Will you save me if I float away?” she asks.
Another little smile, the barest flicker of the corners of his lips. “Maybe I’ll let you float away, so you can learn your lesson and stop biting off more than you can chew.”
“Hey.” She splashes him. He holds her hand tighter and pulls her a little closer to him. She feels light as a feather under the water and lets herself be pulled effortlessly. Her other hand touches his chest, steadying herself. Warmth surges through her, chasing away whatever coolness the water had brought her. But this warmth is different and nothing like the hot, suffocating discomfort she’s been trudging through all day.
He gives his head a good shake. Drops of water fall from his hair onto her face. As he moves, the lake pulls her even closer to him, close enough that his breath hits her mouth and his free hand brushes her waist underneath the cover of the water, so softly that she thinks she could be imagining it.
“Of course, I’d save you,” he whispers.
“Oh.” She had forgotten her teasing with his sudden proximity. His eyes glow in the pale moonlight that bounces off the slowly moving water. Green like the mako they’ve seen drifting through the air around Lifesprings, glowing and glittering and just as mysterious.
“Are you surprised?” he asks with another secret smile.
His fingers brush the curve of her hip under the water, moving to her lower back. Heat coils low in her belly in response. She moves closer to him. The jungle is so quiet she can hear her own blood rushing through her head, as if they’ve entered into a pocket dimension where they’re the only people left in the world.
“No,” she whispers back. “What kind of a bodyguard would you be if you let me drown?”
He doesn’t say anything, just holds her gaze, his hands on her, the corner of his lips upturned in a hint of a smile. Outside on solid ground their future is hazy and uncertain. But here in the water, she places her hand on his chest, right over his heart, and counts the beats of the calm and quiet now.