Dreams And Reality

You slept throughout the whole night; feeling nice and toasty under the covers. You smell Tifa’s wonderful cooking and knew it was breakfast time. Lazily, you swung your legs over the edge of the bed. You put your bare feet on the cold wooden floor sending shivers down your spine. You heard a knock on your door.

“Who is it?” You said groggily still sleepy.

“It’s Tifa, I thought I’d let you know that breakfast is ready.” Tifa’s voice is heard from the other side of the door.

“Okay.” You said as the sound of breakfast sounded good right now.

You put on a white silky robe that Tifa kindly bought you. Treading lightly, you walked down the stairs and followed the smell of breakfast into the kitchen. Cloud was sitting at the table; a mug of hot coffee in hand. Tifa was cooking the last of the eggs.

“What are you doing here?” You looked at Cloud. Cloud is usually not around in the morning. He’s always out delivering packages around this time.

Cloud didn’t answer your question; instead he took a sip of his morning coffee.

“Fine, don’t answer me.” You said as you set yourself down in the chair across from Cloud.

You heard Marlene’s little feet paddling down the stairs. She entered the kitchen with a sleepy look on her face.

“Mornin’ sweetie.” You said in your motherly voice.

“Morning.” She said in a sleepy voice as she sat in the chair next to you.

Tifa placed a plate of eggs and bacon in front of you and Marlene before she headed upstairs with a plate for Denzel.

“Yumiko.” Cloud called your name as you took your first bite of egg.

“Hmm?” You looked from your plate to Cloud.

“Get dressed as soon as you’re done eating.” He commanded.

“Why?” You were curious.

“We’re going to Healin’ today.” He said as he finished the rest of his coffee.

You said nothing; instead you finished your breakfast. After you got done eating you headed upstairs to your room to get changed. You put on a pair of light blue jeans; with holes in both knees, and a plain tight fitting black t-shirt that read Vampire Knight The cool vampires and it had a picture of yuki Kaname and Zero on the front of it. You liked the shirt because it showed your curves.You then put on a black hoodie then sat down on your bed and brushed your hair when you heard a knock at your door. You figured it was Cloud.

“Come in Cloud.” You said as you continued brushing your hair.

Cloud walked in and crossed his arms waiting for you to get done. You took your time on purpose just to piss him off. You knew it was working because you could see the look of irritation on his face. As you finished brushing your hair, Cloud’s look changed. He walked up to you while you were still sitting on the bed and kneeled before you. He gently grabbed a lock of your long silky red hair and pressed it against his lips closing his eyes. You blushed a bright shade of pink at his sudden action.

“I want to protect you, but I’m not sure if I can do it.” He opened his eyes which held such sadness it made you want to cry.

“It’s better to try then not to try at all.” You said quietly not sure what you were feeling at that moment. It felt like butterflies were fluttering in your stomach.

“I failed to protect Aeris. What if I fail to protect you?” Cloud was acting strange and you weren’t sure how to react.

“Cloud, I think it’s time you tell me what happened to Aeris.” You had to know now, more than ever.

Cloud let the strands of red hair run through his fingers as he took a deep breath at began his tale.

“I was hired by AVALANCHE: a group of resisters that wanted to destroy ShinRa for slowly killing the planet by sucking the lifestream out of the earth. I was staying at their secret base in Midgar which was Tifa’s original 7th Heaven in the sector 7 slums. Back then, I didn’t care if the planet lived or died. Barret, Tifa, Biggs, Wedge, Jessie, and I went to destroy one the reactors that was sucking the lifestream. Barret, Tifa, and I were fighting one of ShinRa’s weapons. There was an explosion and fell off the plate into the slums. I woke up to find myself in what looked like to be a church. I fell in a bedding of flowers which I found odd because no flowers grew in Midgar. There was a young woman there saying the roof broke my fall. She introduced herself as Aeris. Soon after our meeting some turks entered the church and asked me to hand Aeris over. I helped her escape from them and she told me she was the last living ancient or they’re also known as the cetra. She was the last of her kind. She could communicate with the planet. ShinRa wanted to use her to get to the promiseland; a place of happiness. ShinRa thought if they could get access to the promiseland they could suck out the lifestream for their own benefit. I promised to be Aeris’ bodyguard from then on until ShinRa was destroyed. We had many adventures together and made new friends, but it didn’t last long. Sephiroth; an ex-SOLDIER and once a great hero murdered her right before my eyes. He stabbed her through her back with his sword and she slowly died. She was praying for holy; a weapon that could destroy meteor that Sephiroth summoned to destroy the planet. But holy failed and at that moment the lifestream burst out of the earth and destroyed meteor. But Midgar was destroyed and so the survivors built Edge from the remains of Midgar. I killed Sephiroth for all the horrible things he’s done. That was all two years ago. I failed to protect Aeris and I couldn’t stand it if I failed to protect again.” He finished his sad tale bringing tears to your eyes. You had no idea that he went through so much and that Aeris died such a horrible death.

He brought his gloved hand up and brushed away the tears staining your face with is fingers. His touch was so gentle and loving that you didn’t want him to stop brushing away your constant flow of tears. You felt safe knowing that he was there. But the moment was ruined when Cloud’s cell phone started vibrating in his pocket. He didn’t answer it though.

“Aren’t you gonna answer that?” You asked through your tears.

“Never do.” He answered as he cupped your right cheek with his gloved hand and brushed away your tears with his thumb gently.

“We better go.” He said pulling his hand away from your cheek and stood up from where he was kneeling.

You wiped away the last of your tears and stood up from the bed.

“Let’s go.” You said and Cloud nodded.

You followed him out of your room and downstairs to the entrance of the 7th Heaven bar. Tifa watched you two as you were about to leave.

“Be careful you two. Come back safe.” She said as she was cleaning one of the beer mugs.

You waved to her as Cloud led you out of the bar to his trusted motorcycle fenrir. He swung his leg over fenrir and waited for you to get on. You sat behind him and wrapped your arms around his waist. He started fenrir up and you two began your journey to Healin’.